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TOM  BROWN'S  SCHOOL  DAYS  AT 
RUGBY.  New  Edition.  Illustrated. 
l6rao,    l^i.oo. 

TOM    BROWN  AT  OXFORD.     i6mo,$i.2S. 

THE  MANLINESS  OF  CHRIST.  i6mo, 
gilt  top,  $1.00;   paper,  25  cents. 

ALFRED  THE  GREAT.  New  Edition, 
f  i.oo. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 

BOSTON   AND   NEW  YORK. 


ALFRED  THE  GREAT 


THOMAS    HUGHES,  M.  P. 

AUTHOR   OF   "  SCHOOL    DAYS    AT    RUGBY,"    "  TOM    BROWN   AT   OXFORD,"    AND 
"  THE    MANLINESS    OF   CHRIST  "' 


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BOSTON    AXD    NEW    YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN    AXD    COMPANY 

(Ctc  liitirrsiDe  press,  CambrtDge 

1891 


stack 
Annex 

\S5 
CONTENTS 


Pacb 

pRtFACE 7 

Chap.  I.  Of  Kings  a\d  Kingship  ....  13 

II.  A  Thousand  Years  ago       ....  20 

III.  Childhood 36 

IV.  CXIHTHOOD 47 

V.  The  Dane 59 

VI.  The  Fibst  Wave 70 

VII.  Alfred  on  the  Throne    ....  82 

VIII.  The  Second  Wave 92 

IX.  AxHELNEr 101 

X.  Ethandune 114 

XI.  Retrospect 127 

XII.  The  King's  Board  of  Works      .        .        .  135 

XIII.  The  King's  War  Office  and  Admiralty  .  145 

XIV.  The  King's  L.\ws 156 

XV.  The  King's  Justice 169 

XVI.  The  King's  Exchequer         ....  185 

XVII.  The  King's  Church 196 

XVIII.  The  King's  Friends 208 


VI  CONTENTS. 

Chap.  XIX.  The  King's  Neighbors        .        .        .  223 

XX.  The  King's  Foe 235 

XXL  The  Third  Wave        ....  244 

XXII.  The  King's  Home 261 

XXIII.  The  King  as  AuTHO^i         .        .        .  272 

XXIV.  The  King's  Death  and  Will         .        .  294 
XXV.  The  King's  Successors       .        .        .  303 

XXVI.  The  End  of  the  Whole  Matter  .        .  308 


PEEFAOE. 


THE  early  ages  of  our  country's  history  have 
been  studied,  and  written  and  rewritten,  with 
a  care  and  ability  which  have  left  nothing  to  desire. 
Every  source  from  which  light  could  be  drawn  has 
been  explored  by  eminent  scholars,  and  probably  all 
the  facts  which  will  ever  be  known  have  been  now 
ascertained.  Kemble,  Palgrave,  and  Thorpe  have 
been  succeeded  by  Pearson  and  Freeman,  whose 
great  ability  and  industry  every  student  of  those 
times,  however  humble,  must  be  able  to  recognize, 
and  to  whom  the  present  writer  is  anxious  to  ex- 
press his  deep  obligations.  Thanks  to  their  labors, 
whoever  takes  for  his  subject  any  portion  of  our 
early  national  history  will  find  his  task  one  of 
comparative  ease. 

And  of  all  that  early  history  the  life  and  times 
of  Alfred  are,  beyond  all  question,  the  most  absorb- 
ing in  interest.  The  story  has  been  written  many 
times,  from  different  points  of  view,  by  natives  and 
foreigners  ;  from  Sir  John  Spelman,  the  first  edition 
of  whose  Life  of  Alfred  was  published  in  1709,  to 
Dr.  Pauli,  whose  most  admirable  and  exhaustive 
work  is  not  yet  eighteen  years  old.  That  book  was 
written  "  by  a  German  for  Germans,"  as  we  learn 


8  PKEFACE. 

from  the  preface.  Its  plan,  Dr.  Pauli  tells  us,  was 
conceived  at  Oxford,  in  November,  1848,  "  at  a  time 
when  German  hearts  tremhled,  as  they  had  seldom 
done  before,  for  the  preservation  of  their  Father- 
land, and  especially  for  the  continuance  of  those 
states  which  were  destined  by  Heaven  for  the  pro- 
tection and  support  of  Germany." 

Happily  no  German  need  now  tremble  for  the 
preservation  of  his  Fatherland,  but  the  problems 
which  1848  started  stiU  await  an  answer.  The 
revolutionary  spur  which  was  then  given  to  the 
intellectual  and  political  activity  of  Christendom 
has  as  yet  done  little  beyond  dooming  certain  con- 
ditions of  political  and  social  life,  and  awakening  a 
very  genuine  and  widespread  longing  for  some  better 
and  higher  life  for  nations  than  has  ever  yet  been 
realized. 

The  political  earthquake  of  1848,  then,  led  Dr. 
Pauli  to  take  so  deep  an  interest  in  the  struggles 
and  life-work  of  King  Alfred,  that  he  could  not  rest 
until  he  had  placed  a  picture  of  them  before  his 
German  feUow-countrymen,  for  their  study,  warn- 
ing, and  encouragement.  The  German  student  felt 
that  somehow  this  story  would  prove  of  value  to 
those  in  his  Fatherland  who  were  struggling  for 
some  solid  ground  upon  which  to  plant  their  feet, 
in  the  midst  of  the  throes  of  the  last  great  European 
crisis.  A  like  conviction  has  led  me  to  attempt  the 
same  work,  an  Englishman  for  Englishmen,  in  a 
crisis  which  seems  likely  to  prove  at  least  as  serious 
as  that  of  1848. 

For  the  events  of  the  last  few  years  —  one  may 
perhaps  say  more    particularly  of   the    last    few 


PREFACE.  0 

months  —  have  forced  on  those  who  think  on  such 
subjects  at  all,  the  practical  need  of  examining  once 
more  the  principles  upon  which  society  and  the  life 
of  nations  rest.  How  are  nations  to  be  saved  from 
the  tyranny  or  domination  of  arbitrary  will,  whether 
of  a  Caesar  or  a  mob  ?  is  the  problem  before  us,  and 
one  which  is  becoming  daily  more  threatening,  de- 
manding an  answer  at  the  peril  of  national  life. 
France  for  the  moment  is  the  country  where  the 
question  presses  most  urgently.  There  the  most 
democratic  of  European  peoples  seemed  to  have 
given  up  her  ideal  commonwealth  in  despair,  and 
Imperialism  or  Ca?sarism  had  come  out  most  naked- 
ly, in  this  generation,  under  our  own  eyes.  Tlie 
Emperor  of  the  French  has  shown  Christendom, 
both  in  practice  by  his  government,  and  theoret- 
ically in  his  writings,  what  this  Imperialism  is, 
upon  what  it  stands.  The  answer,  maturing  now 
these  seventeen  years,  has  come  in  a  shout  from  a 
whole  people,  thoroughly  roused  at  last,  "Away 
with  it !  It  is  undermining  society,  it  is  destroying 
morality.  Brai^'e,  simple,  honest  life  is  becoming, 
if  it  has  not  already  become,  impossible  under  its 
shadow.  Away  with  this,  at  once,  and  forever,  let 
what  will  come  in  its  place ! " 

But  when  we  anxiously  look  for  what  is  to  come 
in  its  place  in  France,  we  are  baffled  and  depressed. 
We  seem  to  be  gazing  only  into  the  hurly-burly  of 
driving  cloud  and  heaving  sea,  in  which  as  yet  no 
trace  of  firm  land  is  visible.  The  cry  for  "  minis- 
terial responsibility,"  or  "government  by  the  ma- 
jority," seems  for  the  moment  to  express  the  best 
mind  of  the  nation.     Alas  !  has  not  Louis  Xapoleon 


10  PREFACE. 

shown  us  how  little  M'orth  lies  in  such  remedies  ? 
Responsibility  to  whom  ?  —  To  no  person  at  all,  I 
presume  the  answer  would  be,  but  to  the  majority 
of  the  nation,  who  are  the  source  of  all  power, 
whose  will  is  to  be  done  whatever  it  may  be.  But 
the  Emperor  of  the  French  would  acknowledge  such 
responsibility,  would  maintain  that  his  own  govern- 
ment is  founded  on  it,  that  he  is  the  very  incar- 
nation of  "  government  by  the*  majority  "  ;  and  one 
cannot  but  own  that  he  has  at  least  proved  how 
easily  such  phrases  may  be  turned  to  the  benefit 
of  his  own  Imperialism. 

The  problem  has  been  showing  itself,  tliough  not 
in  so  urgent  a  form,  in  England,  in  the  late  discus- 
sions as  to  the  House  of  Lords.  That  part  of  our 
machinery  for  government  has  been  so  nearly  in 
conflict  with  the  national  will  as  to  rouse  a  host  of 
questions.  What  principle  worth  preserving  does 
this  House  of  Lords  represent  ?  Is  it  compatible 
with  government  by  the  majority  ?  Does  not  its 
existence  involve  a  constant  protest  against  the 
idea  that  the  people  are  the  source  of  all  power  ? 
Is  such  a  protest  endurable,  if  the  machineiy  for 
governing,  in  so  complicated  a  state  of  society  as 
ours,  is  to  work  smootldy  ? 

Here,  again,  one  has  heard  little  beyond  angry 
declamation  ;  but  the  discussion  has  shown  that  the 
time  is  come  when  we  English  can  no  longer  stand 
by  as  interested  spectators  only,  but  in  which  exevy 
one  of  our  own  institutions  will  be  sifted  with  rigor, 
and  will  have  to  show  cause  for  its  existence.  In 
every  other  nation  of  Christendom  the  same  rest- 
lessness exists,  the  same  ferment  is  sroinff  on ;  and 


PREFACE.  11 

under  many  different  forms,  and  by  many  different 
roads,  the  same  end  is  sought,  —  the  deliverance 
from  the  dominion  of  arbitrary  will,  the  establish- 
ment of  some  order  in  which  "  righteousness  shall 
be  the  girdle  of  the  loins,  and  truth  the  girdle  of 
the  reins,"  of  whoever  wields  the  sovereign  power 
amongst  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

As  a  help  in  this  search,  this  life  of  the  typical 
EngUsh  King  is  here  offered,  not  to  historical  stu- 
dents, but  to  ordinary  English  readers.  The  writer 
has  not  attempted,  and  is  not  competent  to  take 
part  in,  the  discussion  of  any  of  the  deeply  in- 
teresting critical,  antiquarian,  and  philological  ques- 
tions which  cross  the  path  of  every  student  of 
Anglo-Saxon  history,  and  which  have  been  so  ably 
handled  by  the  authors  already  referred  to,  and 
many  othei-s.  As  a  politician,  both  in  und  out  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  he  lias  had  to  examine  for 
himself  for  many  years  the  actual  ground  upon 
which  the  political  life  of  the  English  nation 
stands,  that  he  might  solve  for  his  own  individual 
guidance,  according  to  the  best  light  he  could  get, 
the  most  practical  of  all  questions  for  a  public 
man,  —  what  leader  he  should  support  ?  what  re- 
forms he  should  do  his  best  to  obtain  ?  Born  in 
Alfred's  own  county,  and  having  been  from  child- 
hood familiar  with  the  spots  which  history  and 
tradition  associate  with  some  of  the  most  critical 
events  of  the  great  King's  life,  he  has  reached  the 
same  conclusion  as  Dr.  Pauli  by  a  different  process. 
He  has  learned  to  look  upon  the  Saxon  King  as  the 
true  representative  of  the  nation  in  contrast  to  the 
great  Csesar,  so  nearly  his  contemporary,  whose  aim 


12  PREFACE. 

was  to  weld  together  all  nations  and  tribes  in  one 
lifeless  empire  under  his  own  sceptre.  That  empire 
of  Charlemagne  has  been  exalted  of  late  as  the 
beginning  of  all  true  order  for  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica. If  this  were  so,  it  would  be  indeed  a  waste  of 
time  to  dwell  on  the  life  and  work  of  Alfred.  If, 
however,  precisely  the  contrary  be  true,  it  must  be 
worth  while  to  follow  as  faithfully  as  we  can  the 
simple,  honest  life  of  the  great  Saxon  King,  en- 
dea^'oring  to  ascertain  upon  what  ground  that  life 
and  work  of  the  ninth  century  stood,  and  whether 
the  same  ground  abides  in  the  nineteenth  for  all 
nations,  alike  for  those  who  have  visible  kings  and 
those  who  are  without  them. 


THE 

LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT 


CHAPTEE   I. 

OF  KINGS  AND    KINGSHIP. 

"  ~\T7^E  come  now  to  the  last  form  of  heroism, 
VV  that  which  we  call  '  Kingship,'  —  The 
Commander  over  men ;  he  to  whose  will  our  wills 
are  to  be  subordinated,  and  loyally  surrender  them- 
selves and  find  their  welfare  in  doing  so,  may  be 
reckoned  the  most  important  of  great  men."  "  In 
all  sections  of  English  life  the  God-made  king  is 
needed,  is  pressingly  demanded  in  most,  in  some 
cannot  longer  without  peril  as  of  conflagration  be 
dispensed  with."  So  spoke,  twenty  years  ago,  the 
teacher,  prophet,  seer  —  call  him  what  you  will  — 
who  has  in  many  ways  moved  more  d3eply  than 
any  other  the  hearts  of  this  generation.  Has  not 
the  conscience  of  England  responded  to  the  words  ? 
Have  not  most  of  us  felt  that  in  some  shape  —  noj 
perhaps  in  that  which  he  preaches  —  what  ^Ir 
Carlyle  calls  "  kingship  "  is,  in  fact,  our  great  need  -, 
that  without  it  our  modern  life,  however  full  for 
the  well-to-do  amongst  us  of  all  that  can  interest, 
stimulate,  gratify  our  intellects,  passions,  appetites, 
is  a  poor  and  mean  thing,  ever  getting  poorer  and 


14  LIFE   OF  ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

meaner.  Yes,  this  cry,  to  which  Mr.  Carlyle  first 
gave  voice  in  our  day,  has  been  going  up  from  all 
sections  of  English  society  these  many  years,  in 
sad,  fierce,  or  plaintive  accents.  The  poet  most 
profoundly  in  sympathy  with  his  time  calls  for 

"  A  strong  still  man  in  a  blatant  land, 
Whatever  you  name  him  what  care  I, 
Aristocrat,  autocrat,  democrat,  one 
Who  can  rule  and  dare  not  lie." 

The  newest  school  of  philosophy  preaches  an 
"  organized  religion,"  an  hierarchy  of  the  best  and 
ablest.  In  an  inarticulate  way  the  confession  rises 
from  the  masses  of  our  people,  that  they  too  feel  on 
every  side  of  them  the  need  of  wise  and  strong 
government  —  of  a  will  to  which  their  will  may 
loyally  submit  —  before  all  other  needs  ;  have  been 
groping  blindly  after  it  this  long  while ;  begin  to 
know  that  their  daily  life  is  in  daily  peril  for  want 
of  it,  in  this  country  of  limited  land,  air,  and  water, 
and  practically  unlimited  wealth. 

But  Democracy,  —  how  about  Democracy  ?  We 
had  thought  a  cry  for  it,  and  not  for  kings,  God- 
made  '  or  of  any  other  kind,  was  the  characteristic 
of  our  time.  Certainly  kings  such  as  we  have  seen 
them  have  not  gained  or  deserved  much  reverence 
of  late  years,  are  not  likely  to  be  called  for  with  any 
great  earnestness,  by  those  who  feel  most  need  of 
guidance  and  deliverance,  in  the  midst  of  the  be- 
wildering conditions  and  surroundings  of  our  time 
and  our  life. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  framework  of  society  went 
all  to  pieces  over  the  greater  part  of  Christendom, 
and  the  kings  just  ran  away  or  abdicated,  and  the 


OF   KINGS    AND    KINGSHIP.  lo 

people,  left  pretty  much  to  themselves,  in  some 
places  made  blind  work  of  it.  Solvent  and  well- 
regulated  society  caught  a  glimpse  of  that  same  "  big 
black  democracy," —  the  monster,  the  Frankenstein, 
as  they  hold  him,  at  any  rate  the  great  undeniable 
fact  of  our  time,  —  a  glimpse  of  him  moving  his 
huge  limbs  about,  uneasily  and  blindly.  Then, 
mainly  by  the  help  of  broken  pledges  and  bayonets, 
the  so-called  kings  managed  to  get  the  gyves  put  on 
him  again,  and  to  shut  him  down  in  his  underground 
prison.  That  was  tlie  sum  of  their  work  in  the  last 
great  European  crisis ;  not  a  thankworthy  one  from 
the  people's  point  of  view.  However,  society  was 
supposed  to  be  saved,  and  the  "party  of  order"  so- 
called  breathed  freely.  Xo ;  for  the  1848  kind  of 
king  there  is  surely  no  audible  demand  anywhere. 

Here  in  England  in  that  year  we  had  our  10th  of 
AprO,  and  muster  of  half  a  million  special  constables 
of  the  comfortable  classes,  with  much  jubilation  over 
such  muster,  and  mutual  congratulations  that  we 
were  not  as  other  men,  or  even  as  these  Frenchmen, 
Germans,  and  the  like.  Taken  for  what  it  was  worth, 
let  us  admit  that  the  jubilations  did  not  lack  some 
sort  of  justification.  The  10th  of  April  muster  may 
be  perhaps  accepted  as  a  sign  that  the  reverence 
for  the  constable's  staff  has  not  quite  died  out  yet 
amongst  us.  But  let  no  one  think  that  for  this  rea- 
son Democracy  is  one  whit  less  inevitable  in  England 
than  on  the  Continent ;  or  that  its  sure  and  steady 
advance,  and  the  longing  for  its  coming,  which  aU 
thoughtful  men  recognize,  however  little  they  may 
sympathize  with  tliem,  is  the  least  incompatible  with 
the  equally  manifest  longing  for  what  our  people 


it)  LIFE    OF    ALFRED    THE    (iREAT. 

intend  by  this  much-worshipped  and  much-hated 
name. 

For  what  does  Democracy  mean  to  us  English  in 
these  years  ?  Simply  an  equal  chance  for  all ;  a  fair 
field  for  the  best  men,  let  them  start  from  where 
they  will,  to  get  to  the  front ,  a  clearance  out  of 
sham  governors,  and  of  unjust  privilege,  in  every 
department  of  human  affairs.  It  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated,  that  they  who  suppose  the  bulk  of  our 
people  want  less  government,  or  fear  the  man  who 
"can  rule  and  dare  not  lie,"  know  little  of  them. 
Ask  any  representative  of  a  popular  constituency, 
or  other  man  with  the  means  of  judging,  what  the 
people  are  ready  for  in  this  direction.  He  will  tell 
you  that,  in  spite  perhaps  of  all  he  can  say  or  do, 
they  will  go  for  compulsory  education,  the  organ- 
ization of  labor  (including  therein  the  sharp  extinc- 
tion of  able-bodied  pauperism),  the  utilization  of 
public  lands,  and  other  reforms  of  an  equally  decided 
character.  That  for  these  purposes  they  desire  more 
government,  not  less ;  will  support  with  enthusiasm 
measures,  the  very  thought  of  which  takes  away  the 
breath  and  loosens  the  knees  of  ordinary  politicians  ; 
wlU  rally  with  loyalty  and  trustfulness  to  men  who 
wiU  undertake  these  things  witli  courage  and  single- 
ness of  purpose. 

But  admit  all  this  to  be  so,  yet  why  talk  of  kings 
and  kingship  ?  Why  try  to  fix  our  attention  on  the 
last  kind  of  persons  who  are  likely  to  help  ?  Kings 
have  become  a  caste,  sacred  or  not,  as  you  may 
happen  to  hold,  but  at  any  rate  a  markedly  separate 
caste.  Is  not  this  a  darkening  of  counsel,  a  using  of 
terms  which  do  not  really  express  your  meaning  ? 


OF   KINGS   AND   KINGSHIP,  17 

Democrats  we  know :  Tribunes  of  the  people  we 
know.  When  these  are  true  and  single-minded,  they 
are  the  men  for  the  work  you  are  talking  of.  To  do 
it  in  any  thorough  way,  in  any  way  which  will  last, 
you  must  have  men  in  real  sympathy  with  the 
masses. 

True.  But  what  if  the  special  function  of  the 
king  is  precisely  this  of  sympathy  with  the  masses  ? 
Our  biblical  training  surely  M'ould  seem  to  teach  that 
it  is.  When  all  people  are  to  bow  before  the  king, 
all  nations  to  do  him  service,  it  is  because  "  he  shall 
deliver  the  poor  when  he  crieth,  the  needy  also,  and 
him  that  hath  no  helper."  AVhen  the  king  prays  for 
the  judgments  and  righteousness  of  God,  it  is  in 
order  that  "  he  may  judge  Thy  people  according  unto 
right,  and  defend  the  poor."  When  the  king  sits  in 
judgment,  the  reason  of  his  sentence,  whether  of  ap- 
proval or  condemnation,  turns  upon  this  same  point 
of  sympathy  with  the  poor  and  weak,  —  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  have  done  it,  or  not  done  it,  to  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren."  From  one  end  to.  the  other 
of  the  Bible  we  are  face  to  face  with  these  words, 
"  king  "  and  "  kingdom  " ;  from  the  first  word  to  the 
last  the  same  idea  of  the  king's  work,  the  king's 
functions,  runs  through  history,  poem,  parable,  stat- 
ute, and  binds  them  together.  The  king  fills  at 
least  as  large  a  space  in  our  sacred  books  as  in  Mr. 
Carlyle's ;  the  writers  seem  to  think  him  and  his 
work  quite  as  necessary  to  the  world  as  Mr.  Carlyle 
does. 

To  those  who  look  on  the  Hebrew  scriptures  as 
mere  ancient  Asian  records,  which  have  been  luckily 
preserved,  and  are  perhaps  as  valuable  as  the  Tal- 


18  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

mud  or  the  Vedas,  this  peculiarity  in  them  will  seem 
of  little  moment.  To  those  who  believe  otherwise 
—  who  hold  that  the  same  scriptures  contain  the 
revelation  of  God  to  the  family  of  mankind  so  far 
as  words  can  reveal  him  —  the  fact  is  one  which 
deserves  and  must  claim  their  most  serious  thought. 
If  they  desire  to  be  honest  with  themselves,  they 
will  not  play  fast  and  loose  with  the  words,  or  the 
ideas ;  will  rather  face  them,  and  grudge  no  effort  to 
get  at  what  real  meaning  or  force  lies  for  themselves 
in  that  which  the  Bible  says  as  to  kings  and  king- 
doms, if  indeed  any  be  left  for  us  in  A.  D.  1869.  As 
a  help  in  the  study  we  may  take  this  again  from  the 
author  already  quoted  :  —  "  The  only  title  wherein 
I  with  confidence  trace  eternity  is  that  of  king. 
He  carries  with  him  an  authority  from  God,  or  man 
will  never  give  it  him.  Can  I  choose  my  own  king  ? 
I  can  choose  my  own  King  Popinjay  and  play  wliat 
farce  or  tragedy  I  may  with  him ;  but  he  who  is  to 
be  my  ruler,  whose  will  is  to  be  higher  than  my  will, 
was  chosen  for  me  in  heaven.  Neither  except  in 
such  obedience  to  the  heaven-chosen  is  freedom  so 
much  as  conceivable."  AVords  of  very  startling  im- 
port these,  no  doubt ;  but  the  longer  we  who  accept 
the  Hebrew  scriptures  as  books  of  the  revelation  of 
God  think  on  them,  the  more  we  shall  find  them 
sober  and  truthfvil  words.  At  least  that  is  the  belief 
of  the  present  writer,  which  belief  he  hopes  to  make 
clearer  in  the  course  of  this  work  to  those  who  care 
to  go  along  with  him. 

And  now  for  the  word  "  king,"  for  it  is  well  that 
we  should  try  to  understand  it  before  we  approach 
the  life  of  the  noblest  Englishman  who  ever  bore  it. 


OF   KINGS   AND   KINGSHIP.  19 

"  CyniDg,  by  contraction  king,"  says  ^Ir.  Freeman, 
"  is  evidently  closely  connected  with  the  Avord  C}ti, 
or  Kin.  The  connection  is  not  without  an  impor- 
tant meaning.  The  king  is  the  representative  of  the 
race,  the  embodiment  of  its  national  being,  the  child 
of  his  people  and  not  their  fatlier."  Another  emi- 
nent scholar,  Sir  F.  Palgrave,  derives  king  from 
"  Cen,"  a  Celtic  word  signifying  the  head.  "  The 
commander  of  men,"  says  Mr.  Carlyle,  "is  called 
Eex,  Regulator,  Roi :  our  own  name  is  still  better  — 
King,  Konning,  which  means  Can-ning,  able  man." 
And  so  the  ablest  scholars  are  at  issue  over  tlie 
word,  which  would  seem  to  be  too  big  to  be  tied 
do\vTi  to  either  definition.  Surely,  whatever  the 
true  etymology  may  be,  the  ideas  — "  representa- 
tive," "  head,"  "  ablest "  —  do  not  clash,  but  would 
rather  seem  necessary  to  one  another  to  bring  out 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word.  "The  represen- 
tative of  the  race,  the  embodiment  of  its  national 
being,"  must  be  its  "  head,"  should  be  its  "  ablest, 
its  best  man."  At  any  rate  they  were  gathered  up 
in  him  whose  life  we  must  now  try  to  follow  :  "  Eng- 
land's herdman,"  "  England's  darling,"  "  England's 
comfort,"  as  he  is  styled  by  the  old  chroniclers.  A 
thousand  years  have  passed  since  Alfred  was  strug- 
gling with  the  mighty  work  {^ppointed  for  him  by 
God  in  this  island.  What  that  work  was,  how  it 
was  done,  what  portion  of  it  remains  to  this  day,  it 
will  be  our  task  and  our  privilege  to  consider. 


20  LIFE   OF  ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTER    II. 

A  THOUSAND  YEARS  AGO. 

"  For  a  thousand  years  in  Thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday,  seeing  it  is 
past  as  a  watch  in  the  night." 

THE  England  upon  which  the  child  Alfred  first 
looked  out  must,  however,  detain  us  for  a 
short  time.  And  at  the  threshold  we  are  met  with 
the  fact  that  the  names  of  his  birthplace,  Wanating 
(Wantage) ;  of  the  shire  in  which  it  lies,  Berroc- 
shire  (Berkshire)  ;  of  the  district  stretching  along 
the  chalk  hills  above  it,  Ashdown ;  of  the  neiglibor- 
ing  villages,  such  as  Uffington,  Ashbury,  Kingston- 
Lisle,  Compton,  etc.,  remain  unchanged.  The  Eng- 
land of  a  thousand  years  ago  was  divided  throughout 
into  shires,  hundreds,  tithings,  as  it  remains  to  this 
day.  Almost  as  much  might  until  lately  have  been 
said  of  the  language.  At  least  the  writer,  when  a 
boy,  has  heard  an  able  Anglo-Saxon  scholar  of  that 
day  maintain,  that  if  one  of  the  churls  wlio  fought 
at  Ashdown  with  Ali'red  could  have  risen  up  from 
his  breezy  grave  under  a  barrow,  and  walked  down 
the  hill  into  Uffington,  he  would  have  been  under- 
stood without  difficulty  by  the  peasantry.  That 
generation  has  passed  away,  and  with  tliem  much 
of  the  racy  vernacular  which  so  charmed  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  antiquary  thirty  years  ago.  But  let  us  hear 
one  of  the  most  eminent  of  contemporary  English 


A  THOUSAND   YEARS   AGO.  21 

historians  on  the  general  question.  "  The  main  di- 
visions of  the  country,"  writes  Mr.  Freeman,  "  the 
local  names  of  the  vast  mass  of  its  towns  and  vil- 
lages, were  fixed  when  the  Norman  came,  and  have 
survived  with  but  little  change  to  our  own  day.  .  .  . 
He  found  the  English  nation  occupying  substan- 
tially tlie  same  territory,  and  already  exhibiting  in 
its  laws,  its  language,  its  national  diameter,  the 
most  essential  of  the  features  which  it  still  retains. 
Into  the  English  nation,  which  he  thus  found  al- 
ready formed,  his  own  dynasty  and  his  own  follow- 
ers were  gradually  absorbed.  The  conquered  did 
not  become  Xormans,  but  the  conquerors  did  become 
Englishmen."  Grand,  tough,  much-enduring  old 
English  stock,  with  all  thy  imperviousness  to  ideas, 
thy  Philistinism,  afflicting  to  the  children  of  light  in 
these  latter  days,  thy  obdurate,  nay  pig-headed,  rev- 
erence for  old  forms  out  of  which  the  life  has  flown, 
adherence  to  old  ways  which  have  become  little 
better  than  sloughs  of  despond,  what  man  is  there 
that  can  claim  to  be  child  of  thine  whose  puLse  does 
not  quicken,  and  lieart  leap  up,  at  the  thought  ? 
Who  has  not  at  the  very  bottom  of  his  soul  faith  in 
thy  future,  in  thy  power  to  stand  fast  in  this  time 
of  revolutions,  which  is  upon  and  before  thee  and 
all  nations,  as  thou  hast  stood  through  many  a  dark 
day  of  the  I^ord  in  the  last  thousand  years  ? 

But  though  the  divisions  of  tlie  countr\',  and  the 
names,  remain  the  same,  or  netirly  so,  we  must  not 
forget  the  great  supei-ficial  change  wliich  has  taken 
place  by  the  cleamnce  of  the  forest  tracts.  These 
spread,  a  thousand  years  ago,  over  very  lai-ge  dis- 
tricts in  all  parts  of  England.     In  these  forests  the 


22  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

droves  of  swine,  which  formed  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  wealth,  and  whose  flesh  fnrnislied  the 
staple  food,  of  the  people,  wandered,  feeding  on 
acorns  and  beech-mast.  Here,  too,  the  outlaws,  mIio 
abounded  in  those  unsettled  times,  found  shelter 
and  safety  ;  and  they  were  used  alike  by  Saxon  and 
Dane  for  ambush  and  stronghold.  Christian  monks, 
escaping  from  the  sack  of  their  abbeys  and  cathe- 
drals, and  carrying  hardly-saved  relics,  fled  to  them, 
and  often  lived  in  them  for  years  ;  and  heathen 
bands,  beaten  and  hard  pressed  by  Alfred  or  his 
aldermen,  could  often  foil  their  pursuers,  and  lie 
hidden  in  their  shade,  until  the  Saxon  soldiery  had 
gone  home  to  their  harvest  or  their  sowing.  Tlie 
sudden  blows  which  the  Danes  seem  always  to  have 
been  able  to  strike  in  the  beginning  of  their  cam- 
paigns were  made  possible  by  these  great  tracts  of 
forest,  through  which  they  could  steal  without  no- 
tice. 

There  were  a  few  great  trunk  roads,  such  as  Wat- 
ling  Street,  which  ran  from  London  to  Chester,  and 
the  Ickenild  Way,  througli  Berks,  Wilts,  and  Somer- 
setshire, and  highways  or  tracks  connecting  villages 
and  towns.  These  seem  to  have  been  numerous 
and  populous  ;  and  in  them  and  the  monasteries, 
before  Alfred's  time,  trades  had  begun  to  flourish. 
We  even  find  that  there  must  have  been  skilful 
jewellers  and  weavers  in  Wessex ;  witness  the  ves- 
sels in  gold  and  silver-gilt,  and  silk  dresses  and 
hangings,  which  his  father  and  he  carried  to  Eome 
as  presents  to  the  Pope,  and  Alfred's  jewel,  found 
in  1693  in  Newton  Park,  near  Athelney,  and  now 
in  the  Ashmolean  Museum.    The  lands  immediately 


A  THOUSAND   YEARS   AGO.  23 

adjoining  towns,  monasteries,  and  the  Louses  of 
aldermen  and  tliegns  were  well  cultivated,  and  pro- 
duced cereals  in  aljundance,  and  orchards  and  vine- 
yards seem  to  have  been  much  cared  for.  The  state 
of  tlie  country,  however,  is  best  summed  up  by 
Kemble :  "  On  the  natural  clearings  of  the  forest, 
or  on  spots  prepared  Ijy  man  for  his  own  uses ;  in 
valleys  bounded  by  gentle  acclivities  wliich  poured 
down  fertilizing  streams  ;  or  on  plains  which  here 
and  there  rose  clotlied  with  verdure  above  surround- 
ing marshes  ;  slowly,  and  step  by  step,  the  warlike 
colonists  adopted  tlie  habits  and  developed  the 
character  of  peaceful  agriculturists.  The  towns 
which  had  been  spared  in  the  first  rush  of  war 
gradually  became  deserted  and  slowly  crumbled  to 
the  soil,  beneath  which  th^ir  ruins  are  yet  found 
from  time  to  time,  or  upon  wliich  shapeless  masses 
yet  remain  to  mark  the  sites  of  a  civilization  whose 
bases  were  not  laid  deep  enough.  All  over  England 
there  soon  existed  a  network  of  communities,  the 
principle  of  whose  being  was  separation  as  regarded 
each  other,  the  most  intimate  union  as  respected 
the  individual  members  of  each.  Agricultural  not 
commercial,  dispersed  not  centralized,  content  with- 
in tlieir  own  limits,  and  little  given  to  wandering, 
they  relinquished  in  a  great  degree  the  habits  and 
feelings  which  had  united  them  as  military  adven- 
turers, and  the  spirit  which  had  achieved,  the  con- 
quest of  an  empire  was  now  satisfied  ^vith  the  care 
of  maintaining  inviolate  a  little  peacefid  plot,  suf- 
ficient for  the  cultivation  of  a  few  simple  house- 
holds." 

Bishop  Wilfrid,  a  century  l)efore,  had  instructed 


24  LIFE   OF   ALFKtD    THE    GREAT. 

the  South  Saxons  in  improved  methods  of  fishing, 
and  they  were  energetic  hunters,  so  that  their  taljles 
were  well  provided  with  lighter  delicacies,  though 
as  a  people  they  preferred  heavy  and  strong  meats 
and  drinks.  Their  meals  were  frequent,  at  which 
the  boiled  and  baked  meats  were  handed  round  to 
the  guests  on  spits,  each  helping  himself  as  he  had 
a  mind.  The  heavy  feeding  was  followed  by  heavy 
carousings  of  mead  and  ale ;  and,  for  rich  people, 
wine,  and  "  pigment,"  a  drink  made  of  wine,  honey, 
and  spices,  and  "  morat,"  a  drink  of  mulberiy -juice 
and  honey.  Harpers  and  minstrels  played  and  sang 
while  the  drinking  went  on,  providing  such  intel- 
lectual food  as  our  fathers  cared  to  take,  and  j  ugglers 
and  jesters  were  ready,  with  their  tumblings  of  one 
kind  or  another,  when  the  guests  wearied  of  the 
performances  of  the  higher  artists. 

Song-craft  was  at  this  time  less  cultivated  in  Eng- 
land, except  by  professors,  than  it  had  been  a  liun- 
dred  years  before.  Then  every  guest  was  expected 
to  take  his  turn,  and  it  would  seem  to  have  been 
somewhat  of  a  disgrace  for  a  man  not  to  be  able  to 
sing,  or  recite  some  old  Teutonic  ballad  to  music. 
Thus  we  find  in  the  celebrated  story  of  Cted- 
mon,  told  in  Bede's  "  Ecclesiastical  History,"  that 
though  he  had  come  to  full  age  he  had  never  learnt 
any  poetry,  "  and  therefore  at  entertainments,  when 
it  had  been  deemed  for  the  sake  of  mirth  that  all 
in  turn  should  sing  to  the  harp,  he  would  rise  for 
shame  from  the  table  when  the  harp  approached 
him,  and  go  out."  The  rest  of  the  story  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  times  that  we  may  well  allow 
Bede  to  finish  it  in  this  place.     "  One  time  when  he 


A   THOUSAND    VKARS    AGO. 


25 


had  done  this,  and  left  the  lioiise  ot"  tlie  entertain- 
ment, he  went  to  a  neat  stall  of  which  he  had  charge 
for  the  night,  and  there  set  his  limbs  to  rest,  and  iell 
asleep.  Then  a  man  stood  by  him  in  a  dream  and 
hailed  him  by  name,  and  said,  '  Ctedmon,  sing  me 
something.'  Then  answered  he, '  I  cannot  sing  any- 
thing, and  therefore  I  went  out  from  the  entertain- 
ment and  came  hither  for  that  I  could  not  sing.' 
Bat  the  man  said, '  However,  thou  canst  sing  to  me.' 
Cccdmon  asked  then,  '  What  shall  I  sing  ? '  and  the 
man  answered,  '  Sing  me  Creation.'  AVhen  he  had 
received  this  answer,  then  began  he  at  once  to 
sing  in  praise  of  God  the  Creator  verses  and  words 
which  he  had  never  heard.  This  was-  the  begin- 
ning:— 

"  '  Now  let  us  praise 

The  keeper  of  hea%'en's  kingdom, 

The  Creator's  mif^ht. 

And  the  thought  of  His  mind 

The  works  of  the  World-Father  — 

How  of  all  wonders 

He  was  the  beginning. 

The  holy  Creator 

First  shaped  heaven 

A  roof  for  earth's  children , 

Then  the  Creator, 

The  keeper  of  mankind, 

The  Eternal  Lord, 

The  Almighty  Father, 

Afterwards  made  the  earth 

A  fold  for  men.' 

Then  arose  he  from  sleep,  and  all  that  he  sleeping 
had  sung  he  held  fast  in  his  memory,  and  soon  added 
to  them  many  words  as  of  a  song  worthy  of  God. 
Then  came  he  on  the  morrow  to  the  town-reeve, 
who  was  his  alderman,  and  told  him  of  the  gift  he 
had  gotten,  and  the  toMm-reeve  took  him  to  the 

2 


26  LIFE   OF    ALFIJED    I'HF   GREAT. 

abbess  (St.  Hilda),  and  told  her.  Then  she  ordered 
to  gather  all  the  wise  men,  and  bade  hini  in  their 
presence  tell  his  dream  and  sing  the  song,  that  by 
the  doom  of  them  all  it  might  be  proved  what  it  was, 
and  whence  it  came.  Then  it  seemed  to  all,  as  in- 
deed it  was,  that  a  heavenly  gift  had  been  given  him 
by  the  Lord  himself.  Tlien  they  related  to  him  a 
holy  speech,  and  bade  him  try  to  turn  that  into 
sweet  song.  And  when  he  had  received  it  he  went 
home  to  his  house,  and  coming  again  on  the  morrow 
sang  them  what  they  had  related  to  him  in  the 
sweetest  voice."  So  Ctedmon  was  taken  by  Abbess 
Hilda  into  one  of  her  monasteries,  and  there  sang 
"  the  outgoing  of  Israel's  folk  from  the  land  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  ingoing  of  the  Land  of  Promise, 
and  of  Christ's  incarnation  and  sufferings  and  ascen- 
sion, and  many  other  spells  of  Holy  Writ.  But  he 
never  could  compose  anything  of  leasing  or  of  idle 
song,  but  those  only  which  belonged  to  religion,  and 
became  a  pious  tongue  to  sing." 

The  cowherd  getting  his  mspiration,  and  carrying 
it  at  once  to  his  town-reeve ;  the  reference  to  the 
saintly  abbess ;  the  conference  of  the  wise  men  of 
the  neighborhood  to  pass  their  doom  on  the  occur- 
rence ;  and  the  consequent  retirement  of  C<edmon 
from  the  world,  and  devotion  to  the  cultivation  of 
his  gift  under  the  shadow  of  the  Church,  form  a 
picture  of  one  corner  of  England,  a  thousand  years 
ago,  which  may  help  us  to  understand  the  conditions 
of  life  amongst  our  ancestors  in  several  respects.  For 
one  thing  it  brings  us  directly  into  contact  with  the 
Church,  —  in  this  ninth  century  the  most  obvious 
and  important  fact  in  England,  as  in  every  other 


A   THOUSAND    YEARS   AGO.  21 

country  of  Christendom.  Cliurclie.s  have  been  di- 
vided into  those  that  audibly  preach  and  prophesy ; 
those  that  are  stniggling  to  preach  and  prophesy,  but 
cannot  yet ;  and  those  that  are  gone  dumb  with  old 
age,  and  only  mumble  delirium  prior  to  dissolution. 
This  would  look  like  an  exhaustive  division  at  first 
sight,  but  yet  the  English  Church,  at  the  time  of 
Alfred's  birth,  would  scarcely  fall  under  either  cate- 
gory. 

Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century  the 
history  of  the  Church  in  England  had  been  one  of 
extraordinary  activity  and  earnestness.  She  had  not 
only  completed  her  work  of  conversion  within  the 
island,  and  established  centres  from  which  the  high- 
est education  and  civilization  then  attainable  flowed 
out  on  all  the  Teutonic  kingdoms,  from  the  English 
Channel  to  the  Frith  of  Forth,  but  had  also  sent 
forth  a  number  of  such  missionaries  as  St.  Boniface, 
such  scholars  as  Alcuin,  to  help  in  the  establishment 
of  their  blaster's  kingdom  on  the  Continent. 

The  sort  of  work  which  she  was  still  doing  in 
England,  in  the  eighth  century^  may  be  gathered 
from  the  authentic  accounts  of  the  lives  of  such 
men  as  St.  Cuthbert,  who  is  said  to  have  been  Al- 
fred's patron  saint,  which  may  easily  be  separated 
from  the  miraculous  legends  with  which  they  are 
loaded.  St.  Cuthbert  from  his  boyhood  had  devoted 
himself  to  monastic  life,  and  had  risen  to  be  rector 
of  his  monastery,  when  some  great  epidemic  passed 
over  the  northern  counties. 

"  Many  tlicn,  in  that  time  of  great  pestilence,  pro- 
faned their  profession  by  unrighteous  doings,  and  — 
neglecting  the  mysteries  of  the  holy  faith  in  which 


28  LIFE   OF   ALFliED    THE   GREAT. 

they  had  been  instructed  —  hastened  and  crowded 
to  the  erring  cures  of  idolatry,  as  if  they  coukl  ward 
off  the  chastisement  sent  by  God  their  maker  by 
magic  or  cliarms,  or  any  secret  of  devil-craft.  To 
correct  both  these  errors,  the  man  of  God  often  went 
out  of  his  monastery,  and  sometimes  on  a  horse,  at 
other  times  on  his  feet,  came  to  the  placas  lying 
round,  and  preached  and  taught  to  the  erring  the 
way  of  steadfastness  in  the  truth.  It  was  at  that 
time  tlie  custom  with  folk  of  the  English  kin  that 
when  a  mass  priest  came  into  a  town  they  should  all 
come  together  to  hear  God's  word,  and  would  gladly 
hear  the  things  taught  and  eagerly  follow  by  deeds 
the  words  they  could  nnderstaud.  Now  the  holy 
man  of  God,  Cuthbert,  had  so  much  skill  and  learn- 
ing, and  so  much  love  to  the  divine  lore  which  he 
had  begun  to  teach,  and  such  a  light  of  angelic  looks 
shone  from  him,  that  none  of  those  present  durst 
hide  the  secrets  of  the  heart  from  him,  but  all  openly 
confessed  their  deeds,  and  their  acknowledged  sins 
bettered  with  true  repentance,  as  he  bade.  He  was 
wont  chiefly  to  go  through  those  places  and  to  preach 
in  those  hamlets  which  w^ere  high  up  on  rugged 
mountains,  frightful  to  others  to  visit,  and  whose 
people  by  their  poverty  and  ignorance  hindered  the 
approach  of  teachers.  These  hindrances  he  by  pious 
labor  and  great  zeal  overcame,  and  went  out  from 
the  monaster}'  often  a  whole  week,  sometimes  two  or 
three,  and  often,  also,  for  a  whole  month  would  not 
return  home,  but  abode  in  the  wild  places,  and  called 
and  invited  the  unlearned  folk  to  the  heavenly  life, 
both  by  the  word  of  his  love  and  by  the  work  of  his 
virtue." 


A   THOL'SAND    VLAUS    AUG.  29 

Thus  teaching  the  poor  in  the  highest  matters,  and 
also  showing  them  with  his  own  hands  how  to  till 
and  sow%  —  "  it  being  the  will  of  the  Heavenly  Giver 
that  crops  of  grain  should  be  up-growing  "  in  waste 
places,  —  and  how  to  find  and  husband  water,  Cuth- 
bert,  and  such  priests  as  he,  spent  their  lives.  But 
a  change  had  passed  over  the  Church  in  the  last  fifty 
years.  The  Bedes  and  Alcuins  had  died  out,  and 
left  no  successors.  Learning  was  grossly  neglected, 
and  the  slothful  clergy  had  allowed  things  to  come 
to  such  a  pass  that  AU'red  in  his  youth  could  find 
no  master  south  of  the  Thames  to  t^ach  him  Latin. 
Even  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  was  very  negligently 
performed,  and  the  education  of  the  people  was  no 
longer  cared  for  at  all.  Bishop  Ealstan,  soldier  and 
statesman,  had  succeeded  the  Alcuins ;  and  St. 
Swithin,  bent  on  advancing  the  interests  of  Rome, 
the  St.  Bonifaces  and  St.  Cuthberts^. 

Still,  however,  the  Church  in  Wessex,  if  not 
audibly  preaching  and  prophesying,  was  very  far 
from  having  gone  dumb  with  old  age.  She  had 
within  her  the  seeds  of  strength  and  growth,  for 
Home  had  not  laid  her  hand  heavily  on  the  western 
island.  The  advice  given  liy  Pope  Gregory  to  St. 
Augustine,  in  answer  to  the  questions  of  the  latter 
as  to  the  customs  which  should  be  insisted  on  in 
tlie  new  Church,  had  been  on  the  whole  faithfully 
Ibllowed.  "  It  seems  good  and  is  more  agreeable  to 
me,"  writes  the  great  statesman-pope,  "  that  wliat- 
soever  thou  hast  found,  either  in  the  Roman  Church, 
or  in  Gaul,  or  in  any  other,  that  was  more  pleasing 
to  Almighty  God,  thou  shouldst  carefully  choose 
that,  and  set  it  to  be  held  fast  in  the  Church  of  the 


'60  LIFE   or   ALFliKD    THE    (iUEAT. 

Englisli  nation,  which  now  yet  is  new  in  faith.  For 
the  things  are  not  to  be  loved  for  places,  but  the 
places  for  good  things.  Therefore,  what  tilings  thou 
choosest  as  pious,  good,  and  right  from  each  of 
sundry  Churches,  these  gather  thou  together,  and 
settle  into  a  custom  in  the  mind  of  the  English 
nation."  And  ajiain  as  to  uncanonical  marriafjes, 
which  are  to  be  resisted  but  not  punished  with 
denial  of  the  Communion,  "for  at  this  time  the 
Holy  Church  corrects  some  things  through  zeal, 
bears  with  some  through  mildness,  overlooks  some 
through  consideration ;  and  so  bears  and  overlooks 
that  often  by  bearing  and  overlooking  she  checks 
the  opposing  evil." 

And  the  policy  had  answered  in  many  ways. 
England  had  still  the  inestimable  boon  of  services 
in  her  own  tongue,  and  a  clergy  who  were  not  celi- 
bate. So  the  Church  had  prospered,  and  the  land 
was  full  of  noble  churches,  abbeys,  monasteries  ; 
but  the  ecclesiastics  had  not  emancipated  them- 
selves from  the  civil  governor,  and  their  persons 
and  property  were  answerable  to  him  for  breach  of 
the  laws  of  the  realm.  ^Mortmain  had  not  yet  be- 
come the  "  dead  hand " ;  and  while  Church  lands 
were  at  least  as  well  tilled  and  cared  for  as  those  of 
king  or  thegn,  and  sent  their  equal  quota  of  fight- 
ing men  to  the  field  (often  led  by  such  bishops 
as  Ealstan  of  Sherborne,  whom  Alfred  must  ha^■e 
known  well  in  his  youth),  Church  establishments 
were  the  refuge  for  tliousands  of  men  and  women, 
the  victims  of  the  wild  wars  of  those  Mild  times, 
the  seats  of  sucli  little  learning  as  was  to  be  found 
in  the  land,  and  the  cliief  places  in  which  working 


A   TlluLriAXD    VEAKS    AGO.  31 

in  metals,  and  weaving,  and  other  manual  industries 
could  be  learned  or  successfully  practised. 

Yet  pagan  traditions  still  to  some  extent  held 
their  own.  For  instance,  the  descent  of  tlie  royal 
race  of  Cerdic,  from  which  Alfred  sprung,  from  the 
old  Teuton  gods,  is  as  carefully  traced  by  Bishop 
Asser  and  other  chroniclers  up  to  "Woden,  who 
was  the  son  of  Frithewalde,  who  was  the  son  of 
Trealaf,  who  was  the  son  of  Frithawulf,  who  was 
the  son  of  Geta,  whom  the  Pagans  worshipped  as  a 
god  "  ;  as  the  further  steps  whicJi  carry  the  line  on 
up  to  "  Sceaf  the  son  of  Xoah,  who  was  born  in  the 
Ark."  Pagan  rites  and  ceremonies,  modified  in 
many  ways,  but  clearly  traceable  to  their  origin, 
were  common  enough.  Still  the  two  centuries  and 
upwards  since  St.  Augustine's  time  had  done  their 
work.  England  was  not  only  in  name  a  Christian 
country,  but  a  living  faith  in  Christ  had  entered 
into,  and  was  practically  the  deepest  and  strongest 
force  in,  the  national  life.  The  conditions  of  faith 
and  worship  amongst  the  West  Saxons,  and  generally 
the  relations  of  his  j)eople  with  the  Invisible,  if  not 
wholly  satisfactory,  were  yet  of  a  hopeful  kind  for 
a  young  prince  of  the  royal  race  of  Cerdic. 

In  other  departments  of  human  life  in  Wessex 
the  outlook  had  also  much  of  hopefulness  in  it,  as 
well  as  deep  causes  of  anxiety,  for  Alfred  as  he  grew 
up  in  his  father's  court.  That  court  was  a  migratory 
one.  The  King  of  the  West  Saxons  had  no  fixed 
home.  Wherever  in  the  kingdom  the  need  was 
sorest,  there  was  his  place  ;  and  so  from  Kent  to 
Devonshire,  from  the  Welsh  ^Marches  to  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  we  find  him   moving   backwards  and   for- 


32  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

wards,  wherever  a  raid  of  Britons  or  Danes,  the 
consecration  of  a  church,  a  quarrel  between  two  ,  of 
his  aldermen,  the  assembly  of  his  Great  Council, 
miffht  call  him.  The  Q;overnment  lies  indeed 
heavily  on  his  shoulders.  He  must  be  the  first  man 
in  fight,  in  council,  in  worship,  in  the  chase.  True 
he  can  do  no  imperial  act,  cannot  make  a  law,  im- 
pose a  tax,  call  out  an  army,  or  make  a  grant  of 
folkland,  without  the  sanction  of  his  witan  ;  but  in 
all  things  the  initiative  is  with  him,  and  without 
him  the  witan  is  powerless. 

That  famous  Council,  common  to  all  the  Teutonic 
tribes,  had  by  this  time  amongst  the  "West  Saxons 
lost  its  original  character  of  a  gatliering  of  all  free- 
men. Probably  no  one  below  the  rank  of  tliegn 
attended  the  meetings  of  the  witan  in  the  time  of 
Ethelwulf.  The  thegn  was,  however,  simply  an 
owner  of  land,  and  so  a  seat  in  the  Great  Council 
was  in  fact  open  to  any  cheorl,  even  it  would  seem 
to  any  tlirall  who  could  earn  or  win  as  his  own  five 
hides  of  land,  a  church,  a  kitchen,  a  bell-house,  and 
a  burghate  seat. 

The  possession  of  land,  then,  was  the  first  object 
with  the  Englishman  of  the  ninth,  as  it  is  with  the 
Englishmaii  of  the  nineteenth  century.  At  that 
time  the  greater  part  of  the  kingdom  was  still  folk- 
land,  belonging  to  the  nation,  and  only  alienable  by 
the  king  and  his  witan.  AVlien,  however,  any  por- 
tion of  tlie  common  inheritance  was  so  alienated, 
tlie  grantee  held  of  no  feudal  lord,  not  even  of  the 
king.  As  a  rule,  the  land  became  his  in  a  sense  in 
which,  theoretically  at  least,  no  man  has  owned  an 
acre  in  England  since  the  Korman  Conquest.     Sub- 


A  THOUSAND   YEARS   AGO.  33 

ject  only  to  marching  to  meet  invasion,  and  the  mak- 
ing and  restoring  of  roads  and  bridges,  the  Saxon 
freeholder  held  his  land  straight  from  the  ^laker 
of  it. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  case  of  the  common  or 
folkland  that  a  strong  tinge  of  what  would  now  be 
called  socialism  manifests  itself  in  the  life  of  our 
forefathers.  Teutonic  law,  as  Mr.  Kemble  has 
shown,  bases  itself  on  the  family  bond.  The  com- 
munity in  which  he  is  born  and  lives,  the  guild  to 
which  he  has  bound  himself,  the  master  whom  he 
serves,  are  responsible  for  the  misdoings  of  the 
citizen  craftsman,  servant.  The  world-old  question, 
"  Am  I  my  brother  s  keeper  ?  "  was  answered  with 
empha^sis  in  the  affirmative  here  in  England  a  thou- 
sand years  back.  Indeed  the  responsibility  was 
carried  in  some  directions  to  strange  lengths,  for  it 
seems  that  if  a  man  should  "  for  three  nights  enter- 
tain in  his  house  a  merchant  or  stranger,  and  should 
supply  him  with  food,  and  the  guest  so  received 
should  commit  a  crime,  the  host  must  bring  him  to 
justice  or  answer  for  it."  On  the  other  liand,  so 
jealous  were  our  fathers  of  vagabonds  in  the  land, 
that  "  if  a  stranger  or  foreigner  should  wander  from 
the  highway,  and  then  neither  call  out  nor  sound 
horn,  he  is  to  be  taken  for  a  thief  and  killed,  or  re- 
deemed by  fine,"  for  in  truth  there  are  so  many 
pagan  Danes,  and  other  disreputable  persons,  scat- 
tered up  and  down  the  land,  that  society  must  pro- 
tect itself  in  a  summar}'-  manner. 

This  it  did  by  laws  which,  up  to  Alfred's  time, 
M'ere  administered  iinder  the  king  by  aldermen. 
These  great  officei's  presided  over  shires,  or  smaller 


34  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

districts,  and  held  an  authority  which,  under  weak 
kings,  amounted  almost  to  independence.  The  offi- 
ces were  hereditary,  and  no  special  training,  or  edu- 
cation of  any  kind,  was  required  of  the  holders. 
Simple  as  the  code  of  King  Ina  was,  such  judges 
were  not  competent  to  administer  it ;  and  Alfred, 
when  at  length  he  had  time  for  them,  found  the 
most  searching  reforms  required  in  this  department. 

This  code  of  Ina,  the  one  in  force  in  Wessex,  was 
mainly  a  list  of  penalties  for  murder,  assaults,  rob- 
beries, injuries  to  forests  and  cattle.  It  contained 
also  provisions  as  to  the  treatment  of  slaves,  who 
formed  a  considerable  portion  of  the  population. 
They  were  for  the  most  part  Welsh,  and  other  pris- 
onei-s  of  war,  or  men  who  had  been  sentenced  to 
servitude.  The  laws  were  enforced  by  fine  or  cor- 
poral punishment,  imprisonment  being  unknown  in 
the  earlier  codes.  Such  as  they  were,  the  laws  of 
the  Anglo-Saxons  were  at  least  in  their  own  mother 
tongue,  and  could  be  understood  by  the  people.  In 
the  king's  and  aldermen's  courts,  as  well  as  in 
church  and  at  the  altar,  the  Englishman  was  able  to 
plead  and  pray  in  his  own  language,  a  strong  proof 
of  the  vigor  of  the  national  life,  after  making  allow- 
ance for  all  the  advantages  of  insular  position,  and 
fortunate  accident. 

We  may  note  also  that  these  islanders  are  singu- 
larly just  to  their  women,  far  more  so  than  their 
descendants  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic  have 
come  to  be  after  a  lapse  of  a  thousand  years.  jNIar- 
ried  women  could  sue  and  be  sued,  and  inherit  and 
dispose  of  property  of  all  kinds.  Women  could  at- 
tend  the   shire-gemot,  even   the  witena-gemot,  — 


A  THOUSAND    YEARS   AGO.  35 

could  sit,  that  is,  ou  vestries,  or  in  parliament,  —  arid 
were  protected  by  special  laws  in  mattei-s  where 
their  weakness  of  body  would  otherwise  place  them 
at  a  disadvantage.  Our  fathers  acknowledged,  and 
practically  enforced,  the  equality  of  the  "  spindle 
half"  and  the  "  spear-half"  of  the  human  family. 

Above  the  servile  class,  or  the  thralls,  the  nation 
was  divided  broadly  into  "  eorl "  and  "  cheorl,"  all  of 
whom  were  freemen,  the  former  gently  born,  and 
possessing  privileges  of  precedence,  which  gather 
surely  enough  round  certain  families  in  races 
amongst  whom  birth  is  reverenced. 

Under  such  conditions  of  life  then  our  West 
Saxon  fathers  were  living  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth 
century.  A  stolid,  somewhat  heavy  people,  entirely 
divorced  from  their  old  wandering  propensities,  and 
settling  down,  too  rapidly  perhaps,  into  plodding, 
money-making  habits,  in  country  ami  town  and 
cloister,  but  capable  of  blazing  up  into  white  battle 
heat,  and  of  fighting  with  untamable  stubbornness, 
when  their  churches,  or  homes,  or  flocks  are  threat- 
ened ;  capable  also,  not  unfrequently,  of  rare  heroism 
and  self-sacrifice  when  a  call  they  can  understand 
comes  to  them.  A  nation  capable  of  great  things 
under  the  hands  of  a  true  king. 


36  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTEE    III. 

CHILDHOOD. 

IN"  the  year  849,  when  Alfred  was  born  at  the 
royal  burgh  of  AYantage,  the  youngest  child  of 
^thelwulf  and  Osberga,  the  King  of  the  West 
Saxons  had  already  established  liis  authority  as  lord 
over  the  other  Teutonic  kingdoms  in  England.  Un- 
til the  time  of  Egbert,  the  father  of  ^^thelwulf,  this 
over-lordship  had  shifted  from  one  strong  hand  to 
another  amongst  the  reigning  princes,  each  of  whom, 
as  occasion  served,  rose  and  strove  for  the  dignity  of 
bretwalda,  as  it  was  called.  Xow  it  would  be  held 
by  a  JSIercian,  then  by  a  Xorthumbrian,  and  again 
by  a  king  of  East  Anglian  or  Kentish  men.  But 
when,  in  the  year  800,  the  same  in  wliich  the  Em- 
peror Charlemagne  was  crowned  by  the  Pope,  the 
Great  Council  of  Wessex  elected  the  ^theling 
Egbert  king  of  the  West  Saxons,  all  such  conten- 
tion came  to  an  end.  For  Egbert,  exiled  from  his 
own  land  by  the  bretwalda,  Offa  of  INIercia,  had 
spent  thirteen  years  in  the  service  of  Charlemagne, 
and  had  learned  in  that  school  how  to  consolidate 
and  govern  kingdoms.  He  reigned  thirty-seven 
years  in  England,  and  at  his  death  all  the  land 
owned  liim  as  over-king,  though  the  Northumbrians, 
^lercians,  and  East  Anglians  stiU  kept  their  own 
kings  and  great  councils,  who  governed  within  their 


CHILDHOOD.  37 

own  borders  as  Egbert's  men.  In  Egbert's  later 
charters  he  is  called  King  of  the  English,  and  the 
name  of  Anglia  was  by  him  given  to  the  whole 
kingdom. 

It  is  said  that  the  last  bretwalda  and  first  king 
of  all  England  felt  uneasy  forebodings  as  to  the 
destiny  of  his  kingdom  when  he  was  leaving  it  to 
his  son  and  successor.  Ethelwulf,  from  his  youth 
up,  had  been  of  a  strongly  devotional  turn,  and  was 
too  much  under  the  influence  of  the  clergy  to  please 
his  father.  He  would  probably  have  followed  his 
natural  bent,  and  entered  holy  orders,  but  that  Eg- 
bert had  no  other  son.  So  as  early  as  828  he  had 
been  made  King  of  Kent,  and  soon  afterwards  mar- 
ried Osberga,  the  daughter  of  his  cup-bearer  Oslac. 
There  in  Kent,  under  the  eye  of  Egbert,  he  reigned 
for  ten  years,  not  otherwise  than  creditably,  making 
head  against  the  Danish  pirates,  wdio  were  already 
appearing  almost  yearly  on  the  coast,  in  a  manner 
not  unworthy  of  his  great  father  and  still  greater 
son.  Indeed,  if  he  was  swayed  more  than  his  father 
liked  by  churchmen,  the  influence  of  Ealstan,  the 
soldier-bishop  of  Sherborne,  would  seem  to  have 
been  as  powerful  with  him  as  that  of  the  learned 
and  non-combatant  Bishop  Swithin  of  Winchester, 
afterwards  saint.  Nor  did  courage  or  energy  fail 
him  after  he  had  succeeded  to  Egbert's  throne,  for 
we  find  him  in  the  next  few  years  commanding  in 
person  in  several  pitched  battles  with  the  Danes, 
tlie  most  important  of  which  was  fought  in  851,  at 
a  place  in  Surrey  which  the  chroniclers  call  Aclea 
(the  oak  plain),  and  which  is  still  named  Ocldey. 
The  village  lies  a  few  miles  south  of  Dorking,  under 


38  LIFE   UF    ALFllED    THE   GREAT. 

Leith  Hill,  from  which  probably  Ethel wulf's  scouts 
marked  the  long  line  of  Pagans,  and  signalled  to 
the  King  their  whereabouts.  Thev  were  marching 
south,  along  the  old  Koman  road,  the  remains  of 
which  may  still  be  seen  near  the  battle-field,  heavy 
with  the  spoils  of  London,  it  is  said,  part  of  which 
city  they  had  succeeded  in  sacking.  Ethelwulf  iell 
on  them  from  the  higher  ground,  and  severely  de- 
feated them,  recovering  all  the  spoil.  Again,  a  little 
later  in  the  same  year,  at  Sandwich  in  Kent,  and 
after  that  Wessex  was  scarcely  troubled  with  tliem 
for  eight  years.  So  now  Ethelwulf  had  leisure  to 
turn  his  thoughts  to  a  pilgrimage  to  Eome,  which  he 
had  had  it  in  his  mind  to  make  ever  since  he  had 
been  on  the  throne.  But  two  years  passed  and  still 
he  was  not  ready  to  start,  and  in  853  Buhred,  king 
of  Mercia,  applied  to  him  as  his  over-lord  for  help 
against  the  Welsh.  Then  Ethelwulf  marched  him- 
self against  the  Welsh  with  Buhred,  and  pursued 
their  king,  Eoderic  ]^Ia^^x  to  Anglesey,  where  he 
acknowledged  Ethelwulf  as  his  over-lord,  who  re- 
turning in  triumph  to  AYessex,  there  at  the  royal 
burgh  of  Chippenham  gave  his  daughter  Ethelswitha 
to  Buhred  as  his  wife. 

Being  thus  hindered  himself  from  starting  on  his 
pilgrimage,  Ethelwulf  in  that  same  year  sent  his 
young  soil  Alfred,  of  whom  he  was  already  more 
fond  than  of  his  elder  sons,  to  Eome,  with  an  honor- 
able escort.  There  the  boy  of  five  was  received  by 
Leo  IV.  as  his  son  by  adoption,  and,  it  would  seem, 
anointed  him  king  of  the  West  Saxons.  Tlie  fact 
is  recorded  both  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle  and  in  that 
of  Asser,  who  upon  such  a  point  would  probably 


CHILDHOOD.  39 

have  the  king's  own  authority.  Whether  a  step  so 
contrary  to  all  English  custora  was  taken  by  Ethel- 
wulf  's  request,  in  order  to  found  a  claim  to  the  suc- 
cession for  his  favorite  son,  is  unknown.  In  any 
case,  no  such  special  claim  was  ever  urged  by  Alfred 
himself. 

Leo  was  no  unworthy  spiritual  father  to  such  a 
boy.  He  was  busy  at  this  time  with  the  enclosure 
of  the  quarter  of  the  Vatican,  the  restoration  of  the 
old  walls  and  fortifications,  and  the  arming  and  in- 
spiriting of  the  Romans.  Moorish  pirates  had  been 
lately  in  the  suburbs  of  the  Eternal  City,  and  had 
profaned  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles  St.  Peter  and 
St.  Paul.  AVhat  with  pagan  Danes  in  the  northern 
seas,  and  ]\roors  in  the  Mediterranean,  the  coasts  of 
Christendom  had  little  rest  a  thousand  years  ago, 
and  it  behooved  even  the  Holy  Father  to  look  to  his 
fighting  gear  and  appliances. 

How  long  Alfred  stayed  at  Eome  on  this  occasion 
is  uncertain ;  but  if  the  opinion  which  would  seem 
to  be  gaining  ground  amongst  students  is  coiTect,  — 
that  he  did  not  return,  but  waited  the  arrival  of 
Ethelwulf  two  years  later,  —  we  must  give  up  the 
well-known  story  of  his  earning  the  book  of  Saxon 
poems  from  his  mother. 

This  is  related  by  Asseras  having  happened  when 
he  was  twelve  years  old  or  more,  which  is  clearly 
impossible,  as  his  mother  Osberga  must  have  been 
dead  before  856,  when  his  father  married  Judith,  as 
we  shall  hear  presently.  However,  the  tale  is  thus 
told  by  the  old  chronicler,  the  personal  friend  of 
Alfred  :  "  On  a  certain  day,  his  mother  was  showing 
him  and  his  brothers  a  book  of  Saxon  poetry  wliich 


40  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

she  held  in  her  hand,  and  said,  '  Whichever  of  you 
shall  first  learn  this  book  shall  have  it  for  his  own.' 
Moved  by  these  words,  or  rather  by  a  divine  inspira- 
tion, and  allured  by  the  illuminated  letters,  he  spoke 
before  his  brothers,  who  though  his  seniors  in  years 
were  not  so  in  grace,  and  answered,  *  Will  yon  really 
give  that  book  to  the  one  of  us  who  can  first  un- 
derstand and  repeat  it  to  you  ? '  Upon  Mhich  his 
mother  smiled  and  repeated  what  slie  had  said. 
So  Alfred  took  the  book  from  her  hand  and  went 
to  his  master  to  read  it,  and  in  due  time  brought  it 
again  to  his  mother  and  recited  it." 

Now  Alfred,  one  regTets  to  remark,  before  his  first 
journey  to  Kome,  could  scarcely  have  been  old 
enough  to  get  by  heart  a  book  of  poems,  though 
he  might  have  done  so  after  his  return,  and  before 
his  second  journey  in  his  father's  train. 

This  happened  in  855.  Before  starting,  Ethel- 
wulf,  by  charter  signed  in  the  presence  of  the 
bishops  Swithin  and  Ealstan,  gave  one  tenth  of 
his  land  throughout  the  kingdom  for  the  glory  of 
God  and  his  own  eternal  salvation;  or,  as  some  chron- 
iclers say,  released  one  tenth  of  all  lands  from  royal 
service  and  tribute,  and  gave  it  up  to  God.  In  that 
same  year  we  may  also  note  that  an  army  of  the  Pa- 
gans first  sat  over  winter  in  the  Isle  of  Sheppey. 

A  bright  brave  boy,  full  of  the  folk-lore  of  his 
own  people,  with  a  mind  of  rare  power  and  sen- 
sitiveness and  docile,  loving,  reverent  soul,  crossing 
France  in  the  train  of  a  king,  and  that  king  his  own 
father,  —  entertained  now  at  the  court  of  the  grand- 
son of  Charlemagne,  now  at  the  castles  of  warrior 
nobles,  now  by  prelates  whose  reputation  as  learned 


SeJuloHsly  bent  on  acquiring  learnbi^ 


CHILDHOOD.  41 

men  is  still  alive,  —  traversing  the  great  Alps,  and 
through  the  garden  of  the  world  approaching  once 
again  the  Eternal  City,  renewing  the  memories  of 
his  childhood  amongst  its  ruins  and  shrines  and 
palaces,  under  the  sky  of  Italy,  —  one  cannot  but 
feel  that  such  an  episode  in  his  young  life  must 
have  been  full  of  fruit  for  him  upon  whom  was  so 
soon  to  rest  the  burden  of  a  life  and  death  struggle 
with  the  most  terrible  of  foes,  and  of  raising  a 
slothful  and  stolid  nation  out  of  the  darkness  and 
exhaustion  in  which  that  struggle  had  left  them  ? 

And  what  a  year  was  this  of  A.  D.  855  for  a  young 
prince  witli  open  mind  and  quick  eye  to  spend  in 
Eome  I  His  godfather,  the  bi-ave  old  Pope  Leo,  on 
liis  death-bed,  dead  probably  before  the  amval  of  the 
Saxon  pilgiims ;  the  election  and  inauguration  of 
Benedict  the  Tliird,  without  appeal  to  or  consultation 
with  the  Emperor  Lothaire,  swiftly  following  —  as 
swiftly  followed  by  protest  of  said  Emperor,  riots, 
and  the  flight  and  speedy  return  in  triumph  of 
Benedict  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter;  the  illness  and 
death  of  Lothaire  liimself,  the  whispered  stories  of 
the  struggle  for  his  corpse  between  the  devils  and 
the  startled  but  undaunted  monks  of  Pruim  (circum- 
stantibiis  corpus  ejus  trahi  ct  dctrahi  videretur,  scd 
moimihu  orantibus  dccinoncs  sunt  fatigati) ;  the  en- 
trance of  young  Imperator  Lewis  —  all  these  things 
Alfred  must  have  seen  and  heard  with  his  own  eyes 
and  ears  in  that  eventful  year.* 

Meantime  whether  Pope  or  Emperor,  clerical  or 

*  Did  he  also  see  the  elevation  or  attempted  elevation  of  Pope  Joan 
to  the  papacy  V  It  is  a  papal  legend  that  an  Enplishwoman  by  descent, 
and  Joan  b}-  name,  was  elected  on  the  death  of  Leo  IV. 


42         LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

imperial  party,  were  uppermost  for  the  moment,  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  Englishmen  were  received  and 
treated  with  all  honor.  For  Ethelwulf,  besides  the 
homage  and  reverence  of  an  enthusiastic  pilgrim, 
brouglit  with  him  costly  gifts,  a  crown  four  pounds 
in  weight,  two  dishes,  two  figures,  all  of  pure  gold, 
urns  silver-gilt,  stoles  and  robes  of  richest  silk  inter- 
woven with  gold.  All  these,  with  munificent  sums 
of  outlandish  coin,  this  king  w'ith  a  name  which  no 
Roman  can  write  or  speak  brings  lor  the  holy  father 
and  St.  Peter's  slirine.  Before  his  departure,  too,  he 
has  rebuilt  and  re-endowed  the  Saxon  schools,  and 
promised  300  marks  yearly  from  his  royal  revenues, 
100  each  for  the  filling  of  tlie  Easter  lamps  on  the 
shrines  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  with  finest  oil,  100 
for  the  private  purse  of  their  successor. 

It  was  not  till  after  Easter  in  the  next  year  that 
the  royal  pilgrim  took  thought  of  his  people  in  the 
far  west,  and  turned  his  face  homewards,  arri\ing 
again  at  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald  in  the  early 
summer  of  856.  Through  the  long  vista  of  years  we 
can  stiU  get  a  bright  gleam  or  two  of  light  upon  that 
court  in  those  same  days. 

Notwithstanding  the  troubles  which  were  pressing 
on  his  kingdom  from  the  Danes  and  Northmen  on 
his  coasts ;  from  turbulent  nephew  Pepin,  witli  infidel 
Saracens  for  allies,  on  the  south  ;  from  disloyal  nobles 
in  Aquitaine  itself,  —  the  court  of  Charles  the  Bald 
was  at  once  stately  and  magnificent,  and  the  centre 
of  all  that  could  be  called  high  culture  outside  of 
Rome.  Charles  himself,  like  Ethelwulf,  was  under 
the  influence  of  priests,  wlio,  in  fact,  ruled  for  him. 
But  the   head   of  them,   Hincmar,  Archbishop  of 


CHILDHOOD.  43 

Rheims,  was  before  all  things  a  statesman  and  a 
Frenchman,  who  would  maintain  jealously  his  sover- 
eign's authority  and  the  liberties  of  the  national 
Cluirch  ;  could  even  oh  occasion  re])uke  popes  for  at- 
tempted interference  with  the  temporal  affaii-s  of  dis- 
tant kingdoms,  wliich  "  kings  constituted  by  God  per- 
mit bishops  to  rule  in  accordance  with  tlieir  decrees." 
Both  king  and  minister  were  glad  to  gather 
scholars  and  men  of  note  and  piety  round  them ; 
and  at  Compiegne,  or  Verberie,  in  these  months, 
Alfred  must  have  come  to  know  at  any  rate  Grim- 
bald,  and  John  Erigena,  the  former  (if  not  both)  of 
whom,  in  after  years,  at  his  invitation,  came  over  to 
live  with  him  and  teach  the  English.  John,  an 
Irisliman  by  adoption,  if  not  by  birth,  was  in  fact  at 
this  time  master  of  tlie  school  of  the  palace,  or,  as 
we  should  say,  tutor  to  the  royal  family.  In  the 
school-room  Alfred  must  have  been  welcomed  by 
Judith,  a  beautiful  and  clever  girl  of  fourteen  years 
of  age  or  thereabouts ;  and  Charles,  the  boy-king  of 
Aquitaine,  scarcely  older  than  himself,  lately  sent 
home  from  those  parts  by  the  nobles.  They  there, 
we  may  fancy,  reading  and  talking  with  John  the 
Irisliman  on  many  subjects.  He,  for  his  part,  for 
the  moment,  at  the  instigation  of  Hincmar,  is  en- 
gaged in  discussion  with  Abbot  Pascasius,  who  is 
troubling  the  minds  of  the  orthodox  with  speculations 
as  to  the  nature  and  manner  of  the  i)resence  of 
Christ  in  the  Holy  Eucharist ;  with  the  German 
monk  Gotteschalk,  wlio  is  inviting  all  persons  to 
consider  the  doctrine  of  free-will  witli  a  view  to  its 
final  settlement  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  good  folk. 
John  the  Irishman  is  ready  enough  to  do  Hincmar'a 


44  LIFE    UF    Al.FliFD    THE    GKEAT. 

bidding,  does  in  fact  do  battle  with  both  Pascasins 
and  Gotteschalk,  but  seems  likely  to  finally  settle 
nothing  of  consequence  in  relation  to  these  contro- 
versies, as  he  (not,  we  should  imagine,  to  the  satis- 
faction of  Archbishop  Hiucmar)  proves  to  be  a 
strenuous  maintainer  of  the  right  of  private  judg- 
ment and  human  reason,  instead  of  an  orthodox 
defender  of  the  faith. 

Alfred  must  have  been  roused  unpleasantly  from 
his  studies  in  the  school  of  the  palace  by  the  news 
that  his  father  is  about  to  many  the  young  Judith, 
his  fellow-pupil.  The  ill-starred  betrothal  takes 
place  in  July,  and  on  October  1st,  at  the  palace  of 
Verberie,  the  marriage  between  the  Saxon  king  of 
sixty  and  upwards,  and  the  French  girl  of  fourteen, 
is  celebrated  with  great  magnificence,  Hiucmar  him- 
self officiating.  The  ritual  used  on  the  occasion  is 
said  to  be  still  extant.  Judith  was  placed  by  lier 
husband's  side  and  crowned  queen. 

The  news  of  which  crowning  was  like  to  have 
wrought  sore  trouble  in  England,  for  the  Great 
Council  of  Wessex  had  made  a  law  in  the  first  year 
of  King  Egbert's  reign,  that  no  woman  should  be 
crowned  queen  of  the  West  Saxons.  This  they  did 
because  of  Eadburgha,  the  wife  of  Beorhtric,  the  last 
king.  She  being  a  woman  of  jealous  and  imperious 
temper  had  mixed  poison  in  the  cup  of  AVarr,  a  young 
noble,  her  hu.sband's  friend,  of  which  cup  he  died, 
and  the  king,  having  partaken  of  it,  died  also.  And 
Eadburgha  fled,  first  to  Charlemagne,  Avho  placed  her 
over  a  convent.  Expelled  from  thence  she  wandered 
away  to  Italy,  and  died  begging  her  bread  in  the 
streets  of  Pavia.     The  "West  Saxons  therefore  settled 


CHILDHOOD.  45 

that  they  would  have  no  more  queens.  So  when 
Ethelbakl,  the  eldest  living  son  of  the  king,  who  had 
been  ruling  in  England  in  his  father's  absence,  heard 
of  this  crowning,  he  took  counsel  with  Ealstan,  the 
bishop,  and  Eanwulf,  the  great  alderman  of  Somerset, 
and  it  is  certain  that  they  and  other  nobles  met  and 
bound  themselves  together  by  a  secret  oath  in  the 
forest  of  Selwood,  —  the  great  Avood,  silva  magna,  or 
Coit  mawr,  as  we  learn  from  Asser,  the  British  called 
it.  Wliether  the  oliject  of  their  oath  was  the  de- 
thronement of  King  Ethelwulf  is  not  known,  but  it 
may  well  be  that  it  was  so,  for  on  his  return  he  found 
his  people  in  two  parts,  the  one  ready  to  fight  for 
him,  and  the  other  for  his  son. 

But  Ethelwulf  with  all  his  folly  was  a  good  man, 
and  would  not  bring  such  evil  on  his  kingdom.  So 
he  parted  it  with  his  son,  he  himself  retaining  Kent 
and  the  crown  lands,  and  leaving  Wessex  to  Ethel- 
bald.  The  men  of  Kent  had  made  no  such  law  as 
to  women,  and  there  Judith  reigned  as  queen  with 
her  husband  for  two  years. 

Then  the  old  king  died,  and  to  the  horror  and 
scandal  of  the  whole  realm,  Judith,  his  widow,  was 
in  the  same  year  married  to  Ethelbald,  "  contrary  to 
God's  prohibition  and  the  dignity  of  a  Christian, 
contrary  also  to  the  custom  of  all  the  Pagans."  This 
Ethelbald,  notwithstanding  the  scandal  and  horror, 
carries  the  matter  with  a  high  hand  his  owti  way. 
A  bold,  bad  man,  for  whose  Speedy  removal  we  may 
be  thankful,  in  view  of  the  times  which  are  so  soon 
coming  on  his  country. 

Let  us  here  finish  the  strange  story  of  this  princess, 
throuirh  ■whom  all  our  sovereigns  since  William  the 


46  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

Conqueror  trace  their  descent  from  the  Emperor 
Charlemagne.  She  lived  in  England  for  yet  two 
years,  till  the  death  of  Ethelbald,  in  860,  when,  selling 
all  her  possessions  here,  she  went  back  to  her  father's 
court.  From  thence  she  eloped,  in  defiance  of  her 
father,  but  with  the  connivance  of  her  young  brother 
Lewis,  with  Baldwin  Bras-de-fer,  a  Flemish  noble. 
The  young  couple  had  to  journey  to  Eome  to  get  their 
marriage  sanctioned,  and  make  their  peace  with  Pope 
Nicholas  I.,  to  whom  the  enraged  Charles  had  de- 
nounced her  and  her  lover.  Judith,  however,  seems 
to  have  had  as  little  trouble  with  his  Holiness  as  with 
all  other  men,  and. returned  with  his  absolution,  and 
letters  of  commendation  to  her  father.  Charles  there- 
upon made  her  husband  Count  of  Flanders,  and  gave 
him  all  the  country  bet\\een  the  Scheld,  the  Sambre, 
and  the  sea,  "  that  he  might  be  the  bulwark  of  the 
Fmnk  kingdom  against  the  Xorthmen." 

This  trust  Baldwin  faithfully  performed,  building 
the  fortress  of  Bruges,  and  ruling  Flanders  manfully 
for  many  years.  And  our  Alfred,  though,  we  may  be 
sure,  much  shocked  in  early  years  at  the  doings  of 
his  young  stepmother,  must  have  shared  the  fate 
of  the  rest  of  his  sex  at  last,  for  we  find  him  giving 
his  daughter  Elfrida  as  wife  to  Baldwin,  second  Count 
of  Flanders,  the  eldest  son  of  Judith.  From  tliis 
Baldwin  the  Second,  and  Alfred's  daughter  Elfrida, 
the  Conqueror's  wife  Matilda  came,  through  whom 
our  sovereigns  trace  their  descent  from  Alfred  the 
Great.  And  so  the  figure  of  fair,  frail,  fascinating 
Judith  flits  across  English  history  in  those  old  years, 
the  woman  who  next  to  his  own  mother  must  have 
had  most  influence  on  our  great  king. 


CNIIITHOOD.  47 

CHAPTEE    IV. 

CNIHTHOOD. 

"  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way? 
Even  by  ruling  himself  after  Thy  word." 

THE  question  of  questions  this,  at  the  most 
critical  time  in  his  life  of  every  child  of  Adam 
who  ever  gi-ew  to  manhood  on  the  face  of  our  planet ; 
and  so  far  as  human  experience  has  yet  gone,  the 
answer  of  answers.  Other  answers  have  been,  in- 
deed, forthcoming  at  all  times,  and  never  surely  in 
greater  number  or  stranger  guise  than  at  the  present 
time  :  "  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his 
way  ?  "  Even  by  ruling  himself  in  the  faith  "  that 
human  life  will  become  more  beautiful  and  more 
noble  in  the  future  than  in  the  past."  This  will  be 
found  enough  "  to  stimulate  the  forces  of  the  will, 
and  purify  the  soul  from  base  passion,"  urge,  with  a 
zeal  and  ability  of  which  every  Christian  must  desire 
to  speak  with  deep  respect,  more  than  one  school  of 
our  nineteenth  century  momlists. 

"  Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his 
way  ? "  Even  by  ruling  himself  on  the  faith,  "  that 
it  is  probable  that  God  exists,  and  that  death  is  not 
the  end  of  life " ;  or  again,  "  that  this  is  the  only 
world  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge  at  all." 
Either  of  these  creeds,  says  the  philosopher  of  the 
clubs,  if  held  distinctly  as  a  dogma  and  consistently 
acted  on,  will  be  found  "  capable  of  producing  prac- 


48  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

tical  results  on  an  astonishing  scale."  So  one  would 
think,  but  scarcely  in  the  direction  of  personal  holi- 
ness or  energy.  Meantime,  the  answer  of  the  Hebrew 
psalniist,  3,000  years  old,  or  thereabouts,  has  gone 
straight  to  the  heart  of  many  generations,  and  I  take 
it  will  scarcely  care  to  make  way  for  any  solution 
likely  to  occur  to  modern  science  or  philosophy. 
Yes,  he  who  has  the  word  of  the  living  God  to  ride 
himself  by  —  who  can  fall  back  on  the  strength  of 
Him  who  has  had  the  victory  over  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  the  devil  —  may  even  in  this  strange  dis- 
jointed time  of  ours  carry  his  manhood  pure  and 
unsullied  through  the  death-grips  to  which  he  must 
come  with  "  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye, 
and  the  pride  of  life."  He  who  will  take  the  world, 
the  flesh,  and  the  devil  by  the  throat  in  his  own 
strength  will  find  them  shrewd  wrestlers.  AVell  for 
him  if  he  escape  with  the  stain  of  the  falls  which  he 
is  too  sure  to  get,  and  can  rise  up  still  a  man,  though 
beaten  and  shamed,  to  meet  the  same  foes  in  new 
shapes  in  his  later  years.  New  shapes,  and  ever 
more  vile,  as  the  years  run  on.  "  Three  sorts  of  men 
my  soul  hateth,"  says  tlie  son  of  Sirach,  "  a  poor  man 
that  is  proud,  a  rich  man  that  is  a  liar,  and  an  old 
adulterer  that  doteth." 

We  may  believe  the  Gospel  history  to  be  a  fable, 
but  who  amongst  us  can  deny  the  fact  that  each 
son  of  man  has  to  go  forth  into  the  wilderness  — 
for  us,  "  the  wilderness  of  the  wide  world  in  an 
atheistic  century "  —  and  there  do  battle  with  the 
tempter  as  soon  as  the  whisper  has  come  in  his 
ear  :  "  Thou  too  art  a  man  ;  eat  freely.  Ail  these 
things  will  I  give  thee." 


CNIHTHOOD.  49 

Amongst  the  Anglo-Saxons  the  period  between 
chiklhood  and  manhood  was  called  "  cnihthood,"  the 
word  "  cniht "  signifying  both  a  youth  and  a  servant. 
The  living  connection  between  cnihthood  and  ser- 
vice was  never  more  faithfully  illustrated  than  by 
the  young  Saxon  prince,  though  he  had  already  lost 
the  father  to  whom  alone  on  earth  his  service  was 
due.  The  young  nobles  of  Wessex  of  Alfred's  time 
for  the  most  part  learnt  to  run,  leap,  WTestle,  and 
hunt,  and  were  much  given  to  horse-racing  and  the 
use  of  arms ;  but  beyond  this  we  know  from  Alfred 
himself  that  neither  their  fathers  nor  they  had  much 
care  to  go.  Doubtless,  however,  here  and  there 
were  clerical  men,  like  Bishop  Wilfrid  in  the  pre- 
vious century,  to  whom  nobles  sent  their  sons  to  be 
taught  by  him  ;  and  when  full  grown,  "  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  God  if  they  should  choose  it,  or  otherwise 
to  be  presented  to  the  king  in  full  armor."  It  is 
not  probable  that  Alfred  ever  had  the  advantage  of 
such  tuition,  as  he  makes  no  mention  of  it  himself. 
We  do  not  know  exactly  how  or  when  he  learnt 
to  read  or  write,  but  the  story  of  how  he  met  the 
young  man's  foes  in  the  heyday  of  his  youth  and 
strength  comes  to  us  in  Bishop  Asser's  life,  pre- 
cisely enough,  though  in  the  language  and  clothing 
of  a  far-off  time,  with  which  we  are  little  in  sym- 
pathy. It  seems  better,  however,  to  leave  it  as  it 
stands.  Any  attempt  to  remove  what  we  shouhl 
call  the  miraculous  element  out  of  it  would  prob- 
ably take  away  all  life  without  rendering  it  the 
least  more  credible  to  readers  of  to-day. 

As  he  advanced  through  the  years  of  infancy  and 
youth,  his  form  appeared  more  comely  than  those  of 


50  LIFE   OF   ALFKED    THE   GREAT. 

his  brothers,  and  in  look,  speech,  and  manners  he 
was  more  graceful  than  they.  He  was  already  the 
darling  of  the  people,  who  felt  that  in  wisdom  and 
other  qualities  he  surpassed  all  the  royal  race. 
Alfred  then  being  a  youth  of  this  fair  promise, 
while  training  himself  diligently  in  all  such  learn- 
ing as  he  had  the  means  of  acquiring,  and  especially 
in  his  own  mother  tongue,  and  the  poems  and  songs 
which  formed  the  chief  part  of  Anglo-Saxon  litera- 
ture, was  not  unmindful  of  the  culture  of  his  body, 
and  was  a  zealous  practiser  of  hunting  in  all  its 
branches,  and  hunted  with  great  perseverance  and 
success.  Skni  and  good  fortune  in  this  art,  as  in 
all  others,  the  good  bishop  here  adds,  are  amongst 
the  gifts  of  God,  and  are  given  to  men  of  this  stamp, 
as  we  ourselves  have  often  witnessed. 

But  before  all  things  he  was  wishful  to  strengthen 
his  mind  in  the  keeping  of  God's  commandments ; 
and,  finding  that  the  carnal  desires  and  proud  and 
rebelhous  thoughts  which  the  devil,  who  is  ever 
jealous  of  the  good,  is  apt  to  breed  in  the  minds  of 
the  young,  were  likely  to  have  the  mastery  of  him, 
he  used  often  to  rise  at  cock-crow  in  the  early  morn- 
ings, and  repairing  to  some  church,  or  holy  place, 
there  cast  liimseK  before  God  in  prayer  that  he 
might  do  nothing  contrary  to  his  holy  will.  But 
finding  himself  still  hard  bestead,  he  began  at  such 
times  to  pray,  as  he  lay  prostrate  before  the  altar, 
that  God  in  his  great  mercy  would  strengthen  his 
mind  and  will  by  some  sickness,  such  as  would  be 
of  use  to  him  in  the  subduing  of  his  body,  but 
would  not  show  itself  outwardly  or  render  him 
powerless  or  contemptible  in  worldly  duties,  or  less 


CNIIITHOOD.  51 

able  to  benefit  his  people.  For  King  Alfred  from 
bis  earliest  years  held  in  great  dread  leprosy,  and 
blindness,  and  every  disease  which  would  make  a 
man  useless  or  contemptible  in  the  conduct  of  af- 
fairs. And  when  he  had  often  and  with  much  fervor 
prayed  to  this  effect,  it  pleased  God  to  afflict  him 
with  a  very  painful  disease,  which  lay  upon  him 
with  little  respite  until  he  was  in  his  twentieth 
year. 

At  this  age  he  became  betrothed  to  her  whp  was 
afterwards  his  wife,  Elswitha,  the  daughter  of  Ethel- 
red,  the  Earl  of  the  Gaini  in  Mercia,  whoin  the 
English  named  Mucil,  because  he  was  great  of  body 
and  old  in  wisdom.  Alfred,  then  at  that  time  being 
on  a  visit  to  Cornwall  for  the  sake  of  hunting,  turned 
aside  from  his  sport,  as  his  custom  often  was,  to 
pray  in  a  certain  chapel  in  which  was  buried  the 
body  of  St.  Guerir.  There  he  entreated  God  that 
he  would  exchange  the  sickness  with  which  he  had 
been  up  to  that  time  afflicted  for  some  other  dis- 
ease, which  should  in  like  manner  not  render  him 
useless  or  contemptible.  And  so,  finishing  his 
prayers,  he  got  up  and  rode  away,  and  soon  after 
perceived  within  himself  that  he  was  made  whole 
of  his  old  sickness. 

So  his  marriage  was  celebrated  in  Mercia,  to 
which  came  great  numbers  of  people,  and  there  was 
feasting  which  lasted  through  the  night  as  well  as 
by  day.  In  the  midst  of  which  revelry  Alfred  was 
attacked  by  sudden  and  violent  pain,  the  cause  of 
which  neither  they  who  were  then  present,  nor  in- 
deed any  pliysician  in  after  years,  could  rightly  as- 
certain.    At  the  time,  however,  some  believed  that 


62  LIFE   OF   ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 

it  was  the  malignant  enchantment  of  some  person 
amongst  the  guests,  others  tliat  it  -was  the  special 
spite  of  the  devil,  others  again  that  it  was  the  old 
sickness  come  back  on  him,  or  a  strange  kind  of 
fever.  In  any  case  from  that  day  until  his  forty- 
fourth  year,  if  not  still  later,  he  was  subject  to  this 
same  sickness,  which  frequently  returned,  giving 
him  the  most  acute  pain,  and,  as  he  thought,  mak- 
ing him  useless  for  every  duty.  But  how  far  the 
King  was  from  thinking  rightly  in  this  respect, 
those  who  read  of  the  burdens  that  were  laid  on 
him,  a"nd  tlie  work  which  he  accomplished,  can  best 
judge  for  themselves. 

We  must  return,  however,  to  the  death  of  Ethel- 
wulf,  wliich  happened,  as  we  heard  above,  A.  D.  858. 
That  king,  with  a  view,  as  he  supposed,  to  prevent 
strife  after  his  death,  had  induced  the  West  Saxon 
witan  to  agree  to  the  provisions  of  his  wiU,  and  to 
sign  it  by  some  of  their  foremost  men.  These  pro- 
visions were,  that  Ethelbald  liis  eldest  surviving  son, 
who  had  rebelled  against  him,  should  remain  king 
of  Wessex,  and,  if  he  should  die  childless,  should  be 
succeeded  by  his  two  youngest  brothers,  Ethelred 
and  Alfred,  in  succession  ;  while  Ethelbert,  the  sec- 
ond son,  should  be  king  of  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Surrey, 
with  no  right  of  succession  to  the  greater  kingdom. 
Thus  even  in  his  death  Ethelwulf  was  preparing 
trouble  for  his  country,  for  the  kingdom  of  Kent 
could  not  now  have  been  separated  from  Wessex 
without  war,  nor  was  it  likely  that  Ethelbert  would 
accept  his  exclusion  from  the  greater  succession. 
His  estates  and  otlier  property  the  King  divided  be- 
tween his  children,  providing  that  liis  lands  should 


fNllITllUUD.  Ou 

never  lie  fallow,  and  that  one  poor  man  in  every 
ten,  whether  native  or  foreigner,  of  those  who  lived 
on  them,  should  be  maintained  in  meat,  drink,  and 
clothing  by  his  successoi-s  forever. 

From  858  then,  after  their  father's  death,  Ethel- 
red  and  Alfred  lived  in  Kent  with  their  brother 
Ethelbert  until  860,  when  King  Ethelbald  died,  and 
his  widow  Judith  retired  to  France.  Upon  this 
event,  had  the  younger  brothers  been  self-seekers, 
or  had  either  of  them  insisted  on  the  right  of  suc- 
cession, given  to  them  by  the  will  of  their  father, 
and  sanctioned  by  the  witan,  the  south  of  England 
would  have  seen  wars  of  succession  such  as  those 
which  raged  on  the  Continent  during  that  same 
century  between  the  descendants  of  Charlemagne. 
Then  Wessex  and  Kent  must  have  fallen  an  easy 
prey  to  the  pagan  hosts  which  were  already  gather- 
ing for  the  onslaught,  as  happened  in  Northumbria 
and  East  Anglia.  But  at  this  juncture  the  royal 
race  of  Cerdic  were  free  from  such  ambitions,  and 
Etlielred  and  Alfred  allowed  Etlielbert  to  ascend 
the  throne  of  Wessex,  and  continued  to  live  with 
him.  He  died  in  866,  after  a  peaceful  and  honor- 
able reign  of  nearly  six  years,  and  there  was  grief 
tliroughout  the  land,  say  the  chroniclers,  when  he 
was  buried  in  Sherborne  minster.  Nevertheless  we 
cannot  but  note  that  in  864  he  liad  allowed  a  pagan 
army  to  establish  themselves  in  the  Isle  of  Tlianet 
without  opposition,  and  in  860  had  left  the  glory 
of  avenging  the  plunder  of  Winchester  by  another 
roving  band  to  Osric  alderman  of  Hants,  and  Ethel- 
wulf  alderman  of  Berks.  It  was  high  time  that  the 
sceptre  of  the  West  Saxons  should  pass  into  stronger 


54  LIFE   OF   ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 

hands,  for  within  a  few  mouths  of  the  accession  of 
Ethelred  the  great  host  under  Hinguar  and  Hubba 
landed  in  East  AngHa,  which  was  never  afterwards 
cast  out  of  the  realm,  and  for  so  many  years  taxed 
the  whole  strength  of  the  southern  kingdoms  under 
the  leading  of  England's  greatest  king. 

Alfred  was  now  Crown  Prince,  next  in  succession 
to  the  throne  under  the  will  of  his  father,  which  had 
been  accepted  by  the  witan.  Under  the  same  will 
he  was  aLso  entitled  in  possession  to  his  share  of 
certain  royal  domains  and  treasures,  which  w'ere 
thereby  devised  to  Ethelbald,  Ethelred,  and  him,  in 
joint  tenancy.  He  had  already  waived  his  right  to 
any  present  share  of  this  heritage  once,  on  the  ac- 
cession of  Ethelbert  to  the  "West  Saxon  kingdom. 
Now  that  the  brother  nearest  to  himself  in  age  has 
succeeded,  he  applies  for  a  partition,  and  is  refused. 
The  whole  of  these  transactions  are  so  characteris- 
tic of  the  times  and  the  man,  that  we  must  pause 
yet  for  a  few  moments  over  them.  We  have  his 
own  careful  and  transparently  truthful  account  of 
them,  in  the  recitals  to  his  will,  which  run  as  fol- 
low:— 

"  I  Alfred,  by  God's  grace  king,  and  with  the 
counsel  of  Ethelred  Archbishop,  and  all  the  witan 
of  the  West  Saxons  witness,  have  considered  about 
my  soul's  health,  and  about  my  inheritance,  that 
God  and  my  elders  gave  me,  and  about  that  inherit- 
ance which  King  Ethelwulf  my  father  bequeathed 
to  us  three  brothers,  Ethelbald,  Ethelred,  and  me, 
and  which  of  us  soever  were  longest  liver  that  he 
should  take  it  all.  But  when  it  came  to  pass  that 
Ethelbald  died,  Ethelred  and  I,  with  the  witness  of 


CNIHTUOOD.  55 

all  the  West  Saxon  witan,  our  part  did  give  in  trust 
to  Ethelbert  the  king  our  brother,  on  the  condition 
that  he  should  deliver  it  back  to  us  as  entire  as  it 
tlien  was  when  we  did  make  it  over  to  him  ;  as  he 
afterwards  did  (on  his  death)  both  that  which  he 
took  by  our  joint  gift  and  that  which  he  himself  had 
acquired.  When  it  happened  that  Ethelred  suc- 
ceeded, then  prayed  I  him  before  all  our  nobles  that 
we  two  the  inheritance  might  divide,  and  he  w^ould 
give  to  me  my  share.  Then  said  he  to  me  that  he 
might  not  easily  divide,  for  that  he  had  at  many 
diflerent  times  formerly  taken  possession.  And  he 
said,  both  of  our  joint  property  and  what  he  had 
acquired,  that  after  his  days  he  would  give  it  to  no 
man  rather  than  to  me,  and  I  was  therewith  at  that 
time  well  satisfied." 

Why  should  a  young  prince  otherwise  occupied 
in  the  training  of  his  immortal  soul,  and  wrestlings 
with  principalities  and  powers,  take  more  account 
now  of  this  inheritance  ?     Let  it  rest  then  as  it  is. 

"  But  it  came  to  pass  that  we  were  all  despoiled 
V)y  the  heathen  folk.  Then  we  consulted  concern- 
ing our  children  (Alfred  by  this  time  having  mar- 
ried) that  they  would  need  some  support  to  be  given 
by  us  out  of  these  estates  as  to  us  liad  been  given. 
Then  were  we  in  council  at  Swinbeorg,  when  we 
two  declared  in  the  presence  of  the  West  Saxon 
nobles,  that  whichsoever  of  us  two  should  live  lon- 
gest should  give  to  the  other's  children  those  lands 
which  we  ourselves  had  acquired,  and  those  that 
Ethel wulf  the  king  gave  to  us  two  while  Ethelbald 
was  living,  except  those  which  he  gave  to  us  three 
brothers.     And  we  gave  each  to  other  security  that 


56  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   CHEAT. 

the  longest  liver  of  us  should  take  land  and  treasure 
and  all  the  possessions  of  the  other,  except  that  part 
which  either  of  us  to  his  children  should  bequeath." 

In  Mliich  sad  tangle,  which  no  man  can  unravel, 
the  inheritance  question  rests  at  the  death  of  King 
Ethelred  in  871.  There  is  the  agreement  indeed, 
hut  what  does  it  mean  ?  Alfred  will  not  himself 
decide  it.  Here  is  the  Great  Council  of  the  West 
Saxons.  Let  them  say  whether  or  no  he  can  deal 
with  this  part  of  the  royal  inheritance,  or  to  M'hom 
it  of  right  belongs.  "  So  when  the  King  died," 
Alfred  goes  on,  "  no  man  brought  to  m6  title-deed, 
or  evidence  that  it  was  to  be  otherwise  than  as  we 
had  so  agreed  before  witnesses,  yet  heard  I  of  in- 
heritance suits.  AVherefore  brought  I  Ethehvulf  the 
king's  will  before  our  council  at  Langadene,  and 
they  read  it  before  all  the  West  Saxon  witan. 
And  after  it  Avas  read,  then  prayed  I  them  all  for 
my  love  —  and  gave  to  them  my  troth  that  I  never 
would  bear  ill-will  to  none  of  them  that  should 
speak  right  —  that  none  of  them  would  neglect,  for 
my  love  nor  for  my  fear,  to  declare  the  common 
right,  lest  any  man  should  say  that  I  had  excluded 
my  kinsfolk  whetlier  old  or  young.  And  they  then 
all  for  right  pronounced,  and  declared  that  they  could 
conceive  no  more  riglitful  title  nor  hear  of  such 
in  a  title-deed ;  and  tliey  said,  '  It  is  all  delivered 
into  thy  hand,  wherefore  thou  mayest  bequeatli  and 
give  it,  either  to  a  kinsman  or  a  stranger,  as  may 
seem  best  to  thee.'  " 

This  council  at  Langadene  was  held  most  probably 
between  the  years  880  and  885,  after  Alfred  had 
triumphed  over  all  his  enemies,  and  was  deep  al- 


CNIHTHOOD.  57 

ready  in  his  great  social  reforms.  Under  the  sanc- 
tion there  given  he  distributes  this  part  of  the  royal 
inheritance,  as  well  as  his  own  property,  by  his 
will,  wliich  we  shall  have  to  consider  in  its  own 
place. 

Thus  then  we  get  a  second  residt  of  Alfred's 
cnilithood.  We  have  already  seen  him  curbing  suc- 
cessfully the  unruly  passions  of  his  youth  ;  paying 
willingly  with  health  and  bodily  comfort  to  win  that 
victory,  since  it  can  be  won  by  him  at  no  lower 
price.  At  the  death  of  Ethelbald,  and  again  of 
Ethelbert,  after  lie  had  gi'own  to  manhood  and  must 
have  been  conscious  of  his  power  to  manage  lands 
and  men,  we  now  find  him  standing  aside  at  once, 
and  allowing  two  elder  brothers  in  succession  to 
keep  his  share  of  the  joint  heritage.  He  at  least 
will  give  no  example  in  the  highest  places  of  the 
realm  of  strife  about  visible  things,  will  make  any 
sacrifice  of  lands  or  goods  so  that  he  maintain  peace 
and  brotherly  love  in  liis  own  family. 

The  tempter  we  may  see  has  led  tliis  son  of  man 
into  the  wilderness  without  much  success.  The 
whisper  "  Take  and  eat  "  has  met  with  a  brave 
"Depart,  Satan,"  from  these  royal  lips.  England 
may  now  look  hopefully  for  true  kingship  and  lead- 
ing from  him  who  has  already  learned  to  rule  like 
a  king  in  the  temple  of  his  own  body  and  spirit. 

We  may  notice  for  a  third  point  tliat  in  these 
years  of  his  cnilithood  Alfred  has  gathered  together 
the  services  of  the  lioui'S  {cchhrationcs  Jwrarum), 
with  many  of  the  Psalms,  —  whether  written  by 
himself  or  not  we  cannot  tell,  probably  not,  but 
forming  a  small  manual,  or  handbook,  which  he 
3* 


58  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

always  carries  in  his  bosom,  and  which  will  be  found 
helpful  to  him  in  many  days  of  sore  trial. 

^Xith  such  garniture  then  of  one  kind  or  another, 
gathered  together  in  these  early  years,  the  young 
crown  prince  stands  loyally  by  the  side  of  the  young 
king  his  brother,  looking  from  their  western  home 
over  an  England  already  growing  dark  under  the 
shadow  of  a  tremendous  storm.  Wlien  it  bursts, 
will  it  spend  itself  on  these  Northumbrian  and  East 
Anglian  coasts  and  kingdoms,  or  shall  we  too  feel 
its  rage  ?  These  must  have  been  anxious  thoughts 
for  the  young  prince,  questionings  to  which  the 
answer  was  becoming  month  by  month  plainer  and 
clearer  at  the  time  of  his  marriage.  Within  some 
six  weeks  of  that  ceremony  he  was  already  in  arms 
in  Mercia.  Before  the  birth  of  his  first  child  he 
was  himself  king,  and  nine  pitched  battles  had  been 
fought  in  his  own  kingdom  of  Wessex  under  his 
leadership. 


THE   DANE.  59 

CHAPTER    V. 

THE   DANE. 

"  The  day  of  the  Lord  cometh,  it  is  nigh  at  hand  ;  a  day  of  darkness 
and  of  gloominess,  a  day  of  clouds  and  of  thick  darkness,  as  the 
morning  spread  upon  the  mountains:  a  great  people  and  a  strong  : 
there  hath  not  been  ever  the  like,  neither  shall  be  any  more  after 
it,  even  to  the  years  of  many  generations." 

ASTRAXGE  atmosphere  of  wild  legend  sur- 
rounds the  group  of  tribes  who,  from  the 
shores  of  the  Baltic  and  the  great  Scandinavian  pe- 
ninsula, as  well  as  from  Denmark,  in  this  ninth  cen- 
tury fell  upon  all  coasts  of  England  ;  at  first  swoop- 
ing down  in  small  marauding  bands  in  the  summer 
months,  plundering  towns,  villages,  and  homesteads, 
and  disappearing  before  the  winter  storms ;  then 
coming  in  armies  headed  by  kings  and  jarls,  settling 
in  large  districts  of  the  north  and  east,  and  from 
thence  carrying  fire  and  sword  through  the  heart  of 
Mercia  and  Wessex.  They  are  of  the  same  stock 
witli  the  West  Saxons  and  Jutes  themselves,  and 
speak  a  kindred  language.  Their  kings  also  claim 
descent  from  AVoden.  The  description  of  Tacitus 
applies  to  them  as  well  as  to  their  brother  sea-rovers, 
who,  four  centuries  before  them,  came  over  under 
Hengist  and  Horsa,  inflicting  precisely  that  which 
their  descendants  are  now  to  endure,  and  driving 
the  old  British  stock  back  mile  by  mile  from  the 
Kentish  and  Sussex  downs  to  the  Welsh  mountains 
and  the  Land's  End. 


60  LIFE   OF   ALFUEI)   THE   (UlEAT. 

Three  eeuturies  earlier  the  Arthur  of  British 
legend  had  fought  the  Saxons  in  the  very  districts 
which  a  yet  greater  English  king  is  now  to  hold 
against  as  terrible  odds.  These  Xorthraen,  Scandi- 
navians, Danes,  like  the  Saxons,  elect  their  kings 
and  chiefs,  noble  lineage  and  valor  being  the  quali- 
fications for  the  kingly  office.  Affairs  of  moment 
are  decided  by  general  assemblies,  in  which  tlie 
kings  speak  first,  and  the  rest  in  turn  as  they  are 
eminent  for  valor,  birth,  and  understanding.  Dis- 
approval is  signified  by  a  murmur,  approval  by  the 
clashing  of  spears,  for  they  come  to  their  assemblies 
armed.  The  king  surrounds  himself  by  a  brave 
and  numerous  band  of  companions  in  arms,  his 
glory  in  peace  and  safety  in  war.  It  is  dishonor- 
able to  the  king  not  to  be  first  in  fight,  it  is  in- 
famy for  his  intimate  comrades  and  followers  to 
survive  him  in  battle.  But  the  power  of  the  king 
is  not  unlimited ;  he  sets  an  example  of  valor, 
rather  than  commands.  The  chiefs  have  different 
ranks  according  to  his  judgment,  and  amongst  his 
followers  there  is  the  keenest  emulation  who  shall 
stand  foremost  in  his  favor.  They  would  rather 
serve  for  wounds  than  plough  and  wait  the  har- 
vest, for  it  seems  to  them  the  part  of  a  dastard  to 
earn  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow  what  may  be  gained 
by  the  glory  of  the  sword.  Tlieir  women,  too,  are 
held  in  the  same  high  estimation  as  those  of  the 
Saxons,  and  for  the  most  part  accompany  tliem 
in  their  wanderings,  and  share  their  dangers  and 
glories. 

To  such  a  political  and  social  organization  we 
must  add  a  religious  faith  second  to  none  invented 


THE   DANE.  61 

by  man,  not  excepting  that  of  ^lahomet,  in  its 
power  of  consecrating  valor,  and  inspiring  men 
with  contempt  of  pain  and  death.  The  idea  of  a 
universal  father,  the  creator  of  sky  and  earth,  and 
of  mankind,  the  governor  of  all  kingdoms,  though 
found  in  the  Edda,  has  by  this  time  faded  out  from 
tlie  popular  faith.  Woden  is  now  the  chief  figure 
in  that  weird  mythology,  —  "  wuotan,"  the  power 
of  movement,  soon  changing  into  the  god  of  bat- 
tles, "  who  giveth  victory,  who  reanimates  warrioi-s, 
who  nameth  those  who  are  to  be  slain."  This 
Woden  had  been  an  inspired  teacher,  as  well  as  a 
conqueror,  giving  runes  to  these  wild  Xorthmen,  a 
Scandinavian  alphabet,  and  songs  of  battle.  A 
teacher  as  well  as  a  soldier,  he  had  led  them  from 
the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  (so  their  traditions 
told)  to  the  fiords  of  Norway,  the  far  shores  of  Ice- 
land. Departed  from  amongst  his  people,  he  has 
drawn  their  hearts  after  him,  and  lives  there  above 
in  Asgard,  the  garden  of  the  gods.  Here  in  his  own 
great  hall,  Valhalla,  the  hall  of  Odin,  he  dwells ;  in 
that  hall  of  heroes,  into  which  the  "Valkyrs,"  or 
"choosers  of  the  slain,"  shall  lead  the  brave,  even 
into  the  presence  of  Odin,  there  to  feast  with  him. 
Tliis  reward  for  the  brave  who  die  in  battle  ;  luit 
for  the  coward  ?  He  shall  be  thriLst  down  into  the 
realm  of  Hela,  death,  whence  he  shall  fall  to  Nif  h- 
leim,  oblivion,  extinction,  which  is  below  in  the 
ninth  world. 

Round  the  central  figure  of  Woden  cluster  other 
gods.  Chief  of  these.  Balder  the  sun  god,  w^hite, 
beautiful,  benignant,  wlio  dies  young,  —  and  Thor 
the  thunder  god,  with  terrible  smiting  hammer  and 


62  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

awful  brows,  engaged  mainly  in  expeditions  into 
Jotun  laud,  a  chaotic  world,  the  residence  of  the 
giants  or  devils,  "  frost,"  "  fire,"  "  tempest,"  and  the 
like.  Thor's  attendant  is  "Thealfi,"  manual  labor. 
In  his  exploits  the  thunder  god  is  like  Samson, 
full  of  unwieldy  strength,  simplicity,  rough  hu- 
mor. 

There  is  a  tree  of  life  too  in  that  unseen  world, 
Igdmsil,  with  its  roots  in  Hela,  the  kingdom  of 
death,  at  the  foot  of  which  sit  the  three  "  Xornas," 
the  past,  present,  and  future.  Also  the  Scalds  liave 
a  vision  of  supreme  struggle  of  the  gods  and  Jotuns, 
a  day  of  the  Lord,  as  the  old  Hebrew  seers  would 
call  it,  ending  in  a  "  Twilight  of  the  gods,"  a  sink- 
ing down  of  the  created  universe,  with  gods,  Jotuns, 
and  inexorable  Time  herself,  into  darkness,  —  from 
which  sliall  there  not  in  due  course  issue  a  new 
heaven  and  new  earth,  in  which  a  higher  god  and 
supreme  justice  shall  at  last  reign  ? 

Under  the  sway  of  such  a  faith,  and  of  their  lust 
of  wild  adventure,  pressed  from  behind  by  teeming 
tribes  ever  pushing  westward,  lured  on  in  front  by 
the  settled  coasts  of  England  and  France,  rich  al- 
ready in  flocks  and  herds,  in  village,  town,  and  ab- 
bey, each  standing  in  the  midst  of  fertile  and  well- 
tilled  districts,  but  surrounded  by  forests  well 
adapted  to  cover  the  ambusli  or  retreat  of  invaders, 
the  sea-kings  and  their  followers  swept  out  year 
after  year  from  the  bays  of  Denmark  and  the 
fiords  of  iforway,  crossing  the  narrow  northern  seas 
in  their  light  half-decked  boats,  to  spoil,  and  slay, 
and  revel  in  "  tlie  play  of  swords,  the  clash  of  spear 
and  buckler,"  "  when  the  hard  iron  sings  upon  the 


THE  DANE.  63 

high  helmets."  In  the  death-hymn  of  Regner  Lod- 
brog  are  some  thirty  stanzas,  —  each  one  beginning, 
"  We  fought  with  swords,"  and  describing  the  joy 
of  some  particular  battle,  —  which  trace  the  career 
of  the  old  Xorseman  from  the  distant  Gothland,  up 
the  Vistula,  across  Europe,  in  the  Northumlnian 
land,  the  isles  of  the  south,  the  Irish  plains,  till  he 
makes  an  end :  "  When  in  tlie  Scottish  gulfs,  I 
gained  large  spoils  for  the  wolves.  We  fought  with 
swords.  This  fills  me  still  with  joy,  because  I  know 
a  bauquet  is  preparing  by  the  fatlier  of  the  gods. 
Soon  in  the  hall  of  Odin  we  shall  drink  mead  out 
of  the  skulls  of  our  foes.  A  brave  man  shrinks 
not  at  death  ;  1  shall  utter  no  repining  words  as 

I  approach  the  palace  of  the  gods The  fates 

are  come  for  me.  Odin  hath  sent  them  from  the 
habitation  of  the  gods.  I  shall  quaff  full  gob- 
lets among  the  gods.  The  hours  of  my  life  are 
numbered ;  I  die  laughing."  Such  are  the  last 
words  which  the  Scalds  put  into  the  mouth  of 
the  grim  old  sea-king,  dying  in  torment  in  the  ser- 
pent-tower of  Ella,  to  whom  tradition  points  as  the 
father  of  the  two  leaders  of  the  first  great  Danish 
invasion  of  England,  the  terrible  wave  which  broke 
on  the  East  Anglian  shores  in  the  year  that  Etliel- 
red  came  to  the  throne.  The  death-hymn  may  be 
of  uncertain  origin,  but  at  least  it  is  a  genuine  and 
characteristic  Bersirkir  hymn  ;  and  if  Lodbrog  were 
not  the  father  of  Hinguar  and  Hubba,  they  would 
seem,  at  any  rate,  to  have  been  filled  witli  his  spirit. 
In  851  a  band  of  Danes  had  first  wintered  in 
England,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  and  again  in  855 
another  band  wintered  in  the  Isle  of  Sheppey ;  but 


64  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

these  were  small  bodies,  attempting  no  permanent 
settlement,  and  easily  dislodged.  This  invasion 
towards  the  end  of  866  was  of  a  far  different  char- 
acter. A  great  army  of  the  Pagans,  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  records,  now  came  over  and  took  up 
winter  quarters  among  the  East  Angles,  who  would 
seem  at  first  to  have  made  some  kind  of  truce  with 
them,  and  even  to  have  furnished  them  with  pro- 
visions and  horses.  At  any  rate,  for  the  moment 
the  Pagans  made  no  attack  on  East  Anglia,  but 
early  in  867  crossed  the  Humber  and  swooped 
down  upon  York  city,  which  they  surprised  and 
took. 

There  was  civil  war  already  in  Northumbria  at 
this  time  between  Osbert  tlie  king  and  Ella,  a  man 
not  of  royal  blood,  whom  the  Northumbrians  had 
placed  on  the  throne.  Osbert,  it  is  said,  had  outraged 
the  wife  of  one  of  his  nobles,  Bruern  Brocard  by 
name,  who  received  him  hospitably  while  her  hus- 
band was  away  at  the  coast  on  the  king's  business, 
watching  for  pirates.  "Whatever  the  cause,  the  ci^■il 
feud  raged  so  fiercely  that  the  Danes  were  in  the 
very  heart  of  the  kingdom  before  a  blow  was  struck 
in  its  defence.  Now  at  last,  urged  by  the  Northum- 
brian nobles,  Osbert  and  Ella  made  peace,  joined 
their  forces,  and  without  delay  marched  on  York. 
The  pagan  army  fell  back  before  them  even  to  the 
city  walls,  which  the  Christians  at  once  tried  to 
storm,  and  were  partially  successful.  A  desperate 
fight  took  place  within  and  without  the  walls,  end- 
ing in  the  utter  defeat  of  the  Christians  and  the 
deaths  of  Osbert,  Ella,  and  a  crowd  of  nobles.  The 
remainder  of  the  people  made  peace  with  the  army, 


THE   DANE.  60 

whose  descendants  are  probably  still  living  in  and 
round  the  city  of  York.  At  least  their  mark  is 
there  to  this  day  in  the  street  of  Goodramgate, 
called  after  Gudrum  or  Goodrum,  whom  Hinguar 
and  Hubba  left  as  their  deputy  to  hold  down  the 
city  and  district. 

For  the  remainder  of  this  year  the  army  lay  quiet, 
exhausted  no  doubt  by  that  York  fight,  and  waiting 
for  reinforcements  from  Denmark.  At  this  junc- 
ture, while  the  black  cloud  is  gathering  in  the  north, 
Ealstan,  the  famous  warrior-bishop  of  Sherborne, 
goes  to  his  rest  in  peace,  leaving  the  young  king 
and  prince,  the  grandsons  of  his  old  liege  lord,  Eg- 
bert, who  had  picked  him  out  fifty  years  before, 
with  no  wiser  counsellor  or  braver  soldier  to  stand 
by  them  in  this  hour  of  need. 

Early  in  868  Alfred  journeys  into  Mercia  to  wed 
Elswitlia,  the  daughter  of  Ethelred  Mucil,  as  we  have 
already  heard.  Scarcely  can  he  have  reached  Wes- 
sex  and  installed  his  wife  at  "Wantage,  or  elsewhere, 
when  messengers  in  hot  haste  summon  the  king 
and  him  to  the  help  of  their  brother-in-law,  Buhred, 
king  of  ^lercia.  The  pagan  army  is  upon  him. 
Stealing  over  swiftly  and  secretly,  "like  foxes," 
from  Xorthumbria,  through  forest  and  waste,  as  is 
their  wont,  they  have  struck  at  once  at  a  vital  part 
of  another  Saxon  kingdom,  and  stormed  Nottingham 
town,  which  they  now  hold.  Ethelred  and  Alfred 
were  soon  before  Nottingham  with  a  force  draw^n 
from  all  parts  of  Wessex,  eager  for  battle.  But  the 
wily  Pagan  holds  him  fast  in  castle  and  town,  and 
the  walls  are  high  and  strong.  The  king  and  prince 
watch  in  vain  outside.     Soon  their  troops,  hastily 


UU  LIFE   ur   ALFRED   THE   GLEAT. 

mustered,  must  get  back  for  harvest.  They  march 
south  rehictantly,  not,  liowever,  before  a  peace  is 
made  between  their  brother-in-law  and  the  Pagans, 
under  which  the  latter  return  to  York,  where  they 
lie  quiet  for  the  whole  of  869. 

But  this  year  also  brought  its  own  troubles  to 
afflicted  England,  —  a  great  famine  and  mortality 
amongst  men  and  a  pest  among  cattle.  Such  times 
can  allow  small  leisure  to  a  young  prince  who 
carries  in  his  bosom  that  handbook  in  which  the 
Psalms  and  services  of  the  hours  are  MTitten,  and 
who  has  resolved  for  his  part  to  be  a  true  sheplierd 
of  his  people,  a  king  indeed,  but  one  who  will  rule 
under  the  eye  and  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  kings. 

The  next  year  (870)  is  one  full  of  soitow  and 
of  glory  for  Christian  England.  It  witnesses  the 
utter  destruction  of  another  Saxon  kingdom,  adds 
one  worthy  English  name  to  the  calendar  of  saints, 
several  to  the  roll  of  our  heroes  still  remembered, 
and  a  whole  people  to  the  glorious  list  of  those  wlio 
have  died  sword  in  hand  and  steadfast  to  the  last 
for  faith  and  fatherland. 

In  the  late  summer  one  division  of  the  pagan 
army  leaving  York  take  to  their  ships,  and,  crossing 
the  Humber,  fall  on  Lindesey  (now  Lincolnshire), 
and  plunder  and  burn  the  monastery  of  Bardeney. 
The  young  Algar,  alderman  of  the  shire,  the  friend 
of  Ethelred  and  Alfred,  springs  to  arms,  and  calls 
out  the  brave  men  of  the  Fens.  They  flock  to  his 
standard,  the  rich  cloisters  of  the  district  sending 
their  full  quota  of  fighting  men  under  lay  brother 
Toly,  of  Croyland  Abbey.  On  the  21st  of  Sep- 
tember, St.  Maurice's  Dav,  the  Christian  host  fell 


THE   DANE.  67 

on  the  Pagans  at  Kesteven,  and  in  that  first  figlit 
three  kings  were  slain,  and  Algar  pursued  tlie  Pa- 
gans to  the  entrance  of  their  camp. 

But  help  for  the  vanquished  was  at  hand.  Tlie 
other  division  of  the  Pagans,  in  which  were  now 
five  kings  —  Guthrum,  Bagsac,  Oskytal,  Halfdene, 
and  Araund  —  and  the  jarls  Hinguar  and  Huhba, 
Frene,  and  the  two  Sidrocs,  marching  overland 
througlL  Mercia,  arrive  on  the  field.  Algar,  Toly, 
and  their  comrades,  now  fearfully  overmatched,  re- 
ceive the  Holy  Sacrament  in  the  early  morning,  and 
stand  there  to  win  or  die.  Algar  commands  the 
centre  of  the  Christian  battle,  Toly  and  Morcar  the 
right  wing,  Osgot  of  Lindesey  and  Harding  of  Rehal 
(we  cannot  spare  the  names  of  one  of  them)  the 
left.  The  Pagans,  having  buried  their  slain  kings, 
hurl  themselves  on  the  Christian  host,  and  through 
the  long  day  Algar  and  his  men  stand  together  and 
beat  back  wave  after  wave  of  the  sea-kings'  on- 
slaught. At  last  the  Christians,  deceived  by  a 
feigned  retreat,  break  their  solid  ranks  and  pursue. 
Then  comes  the  end.  The  Pagans  turn,  stand,  and, 
surrounded  and  outnumbered,  Algar,  Toly,  and  their 
men  die  where  they  had  fought,  and  a  handful  of 
youths  only  escape  of  all  the  Christian  host  to  carry 
the  fearful  news  to  the  monks  of  Croyland.  The 
pursuers  are  on  their  track.  Croyland  is  burnt  and 
pillaged  before  the  treasures  can  be  carried  to  the 
forests. 

Four  days  later  Medeshamsted  (Peterborough) 
shares  the  same  fate ;  soon  afterwards  Huntingdon 
and  Ely  ;  and  in  all  tliose  fair  shires  scarcely  man, 
woman,  or  child  remains  to  haunt  like  ghosts  the 


68  lifp:  of  ai.fi!EI)  the  great. 

homes  which  had  been  theirs  for  generations.  The 
pagan  host,  leaving  the  desolate  land  a  Avildeniess 
beliind  tliem,  turn  southeast  and  make  their  head- 
quarters at  Thetford.  Edmund,  king  of  the  East 
Anglians,  a  just  and  righteous  ruler,  very  dear  to  liis 
people,  —  no  warrior,  it  would  seem,  hitherto,  but  one 
who  can  at  least  do  a  brave  leader's  part,  —  he  now 
arms  and  fights  fiercely  with  the  Pagans,  and  is  slain 
by  them,  with  the  greater  part  of  his  followers,  near 
the  village  of  Hoxne.  Tradition  says  that  the  king 
was  taken  alive,  and,  refusing  to  play  the  renegade, 
was  tied  to  a  tree,  and  shot  to  death,  after  undergoing 
dreadful  tortures.  His  head  was  struck  off,  and  the 
corpse  left  for  wolf  or  eagle,  while  his  murderers 
fell  on  town  and  village,  and  minster  and  abbey, 
throughout  all  that  was  left  of  East  Anglia,  so  that 
the  few  people  who  survived  fled  to  the  forests  for 
shelter. 

Nevertheless,  a  monk  or  two  from  Croyland,  and 
other  faithful  men  of  the  eastern  counties,  managed 
to  steal  out  of  their  hiding-places  and  take  up  the 
slain  body  and  severed  head  of  their  good  King 
Edmund.  "They  embalmed  him  with  myrrh  and 
sweet  spices,  with  love,  pity,  and  all  high  and  awful 
thoughts,  consecrating  him  with  a  very  storm  of 
melodious,  adoring  admiration  and  sun-dyed  showers 
of  tears ;  joyfully,  yet  with  awe  (as  all  deep  joy  has 
something  of  the  awful  in  it),  commemorating  his 
noble  deeds  and  godlike  walk  and  conversation  while 
on  earth.  Till  at  length  the  very  Pope  and  cardinals 
at  Rome  were  forced  to  hear  of  it ;  and  they  sum- 
ming up  as  correctly  as  they  well  could  with  '  Advo- 
catus  Diaboli '  pleadings,  and  their  otlier  forms  of 


THE   DANE.  69 

process,  the  general  verdict  of  mankind  declared : 
that  he  had  in  very  fact  led  a  hero's  life  in  this 
world,  and  being  now  gone,  was  gone,  as  they  con- 
ceived, to  God  above,  and  reaping  his  reward  there." 
So  King  Edmund  was  canonized,  and  his  body  en- 
tombed in  St.  Edmund's  shrine,  where  a  splendid 
abbey  in  due  time  rose  over  it,  some  poor  fragments 
of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  the  town  of  Bury  St. 
Edmunds. 

Alas  for  East  Anglia  !  there  was  no  one  to  take 
Edmund's  place,  to  play  the  part  for  the  eastern 
counties  which  Alfred  played  for  Wessex  a  few  years 
later.  Edwold,  the  brother  of  Edmund,  on  whom  the 
duty  lay,  "seeing  that  a  hard  lot  had  fallen  on  himself 
and  his  brother,  retired  to  the  monastery  of  Canielia 
in  Dorsetsliire,  near  a  clear  well  which  St.  Augustine 
had  formerly  brought  out  of  the  earth  by  prayer  to 
baptize  the  people  in.  And  there  he  led  a  hermit's 
life  on  bread  and  water."  So  East  Anglia  remained 
for  years  a  heathen  kingdom,  with  Guthrum,  the 
most  powerful  and  latest  comer  of  the  pagan  leaders, 
lor  king.  In  the  dread  pause  of  the  few  winter 
months  of  870  -  71  we  may  fancy  the  brave  young 
kins:  of  the  West  Saxons  and  the  Ethelinjj  Alfred 
warning  alderman  and  earl,  bishop  and  mitred  abbot, 
and  thegn,  throughout  "NVessex,  that  their  turn  had 
now  come.  There  was  nothing  to  delay  the  invaders 
for  an  hour  between  Thetford  and  the  Thames.  Their 
ships  would  be  in  the  river,  and  their  horsemen  on  the 
north  bank,  in  the  early  spring.  Then  the  last  issue 
would  have  to  be  tried  between  Christian  and  Pagan, 
Saxon  and  Dane,  for  stakes  of  which  not  even  Alfred 
could  estimate  the  worth  to  England  and  the  world. 


7U  UFE    UF    ALFKED    THE    GKEAT. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  FIKST  WAVE. 

" Blessed  be  the  Lord  my  strength,  who  teacheth  my  hands  to  -war 
and  my  fingers  to  fight." 

CHRISTMAS,  870-71,  must  have  been  a  time  of 
intense  anxiety  to  the  whole  Christian  people 
of  Wessex.  The  young  King  had  indeed  shown 
himself  already  a  prompt  and  energetic  leader  in  his 
march  to  Nottmgham  at  the  call  of  his  brother-in- 
law.  But,  unless  perhaps  in  the  skirmishes  outside 
that  beleaguered  town  in  the  autumn  of  869,  he  had 
never  seen  blows  struck  in  earnest ;  had  never  led 
and  rallied  men  under  the  tremendous  onset  of  the 
Bersirkir.  Alfred,  though  already  the  darling  of  the 
people,  had  even  less  experience  than  Ethelred,  who 
was  at  least  five  years  older.  He  was  still  a  very 
young  man,  skilled  in  the  chase,  and  inured  to  dan- 
ger and  hardship,  so  far  as  hunting  and  manly  exer- 
cises of  all  kinds  could  make  him  so,  but  as  much 
a  novice  in  actual  battle  as  David  when  he  stood 
before  Saul,  ruddy  and  of  a  fair  complexion,  but 
ready  in  the  strength  of  his  God,  who  had  delivered 
liim  from  the  paw  of  the  lion  and  the  paw  of  the  bear, 
to  go  up  with  his  sling  and  stone  and  fight  with  the 
Bersirkir  of  his  day.  And  this  generation  of  the 
West  Saxons,  who  were  now  to  meet  in  supreme 
life-and-death  fconflict  such  kinjjs  as  Guthrum  and 


THE    ITllST   WAVE.  71 

Bagsac,  such  jarls  as  Hinguar  and  Sidroc,  "  the  an- 
cient one  of  evil  days,"  and  their  followers  —  tried 
warriors  from  their  youth  up,  —  were  much  in  the 
same  case  as  their  young  leaders.  The  last  battle 
of  any  mark  in  Wessex  had  been  fought  eleven  yeai-s 
back,  in  860,  when  a  pagan  host  "  came  up  from  the 
sea  "  and  stormed  and  sacked  Winchester.  Osric, 
alderman  of  Hampshire,  and  Ethelwulf,  alderman  of 
Berkshire,  as  we  have  already  heard,  caught  them  on 
their  return  to  their  ships  laden  with  spoil,  and  after 
a  hard  fight  utterly  routed  them,  rescued  all  the  spoil, 
and  had  po.ssession  of  the  place  of  death.  Of  this 
Alderman  Ethelwulf  we  shall  hear  again  speedily, 
but  Osric  would  seem  to  liave  died  since  tliose  Win- 
chester days.  At  any  rate  we  have  no  mention  of 
him,  or  indeed  of  any  other  known  leader  except 
Ethelwulf,  in  all  that  storm  of  battle  which  now 
sweeps  down  on  the  rich  kingdom,  and  its  stolid  but 
indomitable  sons. 

In  these  days  when  our  wise  generation,  weighed 
down  with  wealth  and  its  handmaid  "vices  on  the 
one  hand,  and  exhilarated  by  some  tiny  steps  it  has 
managed  to  make  on  the  threshold  of  physical 
knowledge  of  various  kinds  on  the  other,  would 
seem  to  be  bent  on  ignoring  its  Creator  and  God 
altogether, — or  at  least  of  utterly  denying  that  he 
lias  revealed,  or  is  revealing  himself,  unless  it  be 
througli  the  laws  of  Nature,  —  one  of  the  com- 
monest demurrei's  to  Christianity  has  been,  that  it 
is  no  faith  for  fighters,  for  the  men  who  have  to  do 
the  roughest  and  hardest  work  for  the  world.  I 
fear  that  some  sections  of  Christians  have  been  too 
ready  to  allow  this  demurrer,  and  fall  back  on  the 


72  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

Quaker  doctrines ;  admitting  thereby  that  sucli 
"  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  as  they  can 
for  their  part  heartily  believe  in,  and  live  up  to,  is 
after  all  only  a  poor  cash-gospel,  and  cannot  bear 
the  dust  and  dint,  the  glare  and  horror,  of  battle- 
iields.  Those  of  us  wlio  hold  that  man  was  sent 
into  this  earth  for  the  express  purpose  of  fighting 
—  of  uncompromising  and  unending  lighting  Avith 
body,  intellect,  spirit,  against  whomsoever  or  what- 
soever causeth  or  maketh  a  lie,  and  therefore,  alas  ! 
too  often  against  his  brother  man  —  would,  of 
course,  have  to  give  up  Christianity  if  this  were 
true  ;  nay,  if  they  did  not  believe  that  precisely  the 
contrary  of  this  is  true,  that  Christ  can  call  them  as 
plaiidy  in  the  drum-beating  to  battle,  as  in  the  bell 
calling  to  prayer,  can  and  will  be  as  surely  with 
them  in  tlie  shock  of  angry  hosts  as  in  the  gather- 
ing before  the  altar.  But  without  entering  further 
into  the  great  controversy  here,  I  would  ask  readers 
fairly  and  calmly  to  consider  whether  all  tlie  great- 
est fighting  that  has  been  done  in  the  world  has  not 
been  done  by  men  who  believed,  and  showed  by 
their  lives  that  they  believed,  they  had  a  direct  call 
from  God  to  do  it,  and  that  he  was  present  with 
them  in  their  work.  And  further  (as  I  cheerfully 
own  that  this  test  would  tell  as  much  in  favor  of 
Mahomet  as  of  Cromwell,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  John 
Brown)  whether,  on  the  whole,  Christian  nations 
have  not  proved  stronger  in  battle  than  any  others. 
I  would  not  press  the  point  unfairly,  or  overlook 
such  facts  as  the  rooting  out  of  the  British  by  these 
very  West  Saxons  when  the  latter  were  Pagans ; 
all  I  maintain  is,  that  from  the  time  of  which  we 


THE   FIRST   WAVE.  73 

are  speaking  to  the  last  great  civil  war  in  America, 
faith  in  the  constant  presence  of  God  in  and  around 
them  has  been  the  suppoi-t  of  those  who  have  shown 
the  strongest  hearts,  the  least  love  of  ease  and  life, 
the  least  fear  of  death  and  pain. 

But  we  are  wandering  from  the  West  Saxon 
kingdom  and  our  hero  in  those  early  days  of  the 
year  871.  The  Christians  were  not  kept  long  in 
suspense.  As  soon  as  the  frost  had  broken  up, 
Danish  galleys  were  beating  up  the  Thames,  and 
Danish  horsemen  stealing  their  way  across  Hert- 
fordshire and  Buckinghamshire.  The  kings  Bag- 
sac,  Halfdene,  and  Guthrum,  jarls  Osberu,  Frene, 
Harald,  the  two  Sidrocs,  and  probably  Hinguar, 
led  the  pagan  host  in  this  their  greatest  enterprise 
on  British  soil.  Swiftly,  as  was  their  wont,  they 
struck  at  a  vital  point,  and  seizing  the  delta  which 
is  formed  by  the  junction  of  the  Thames  and  Ken- 
net,  close  to  the  royal  burgh  of  Beading,  threw 
up  earthworks,  and  intrenched  themselves  there. 
Whether  they  also  took  the  town  at  this  time  is 
not  clear  from  the  Chronicles,  but  most  likely  they 
did,  and  in  any  case  here  they  had  alt  they  wanted 
in  the  shape  of  a  stronghold,  a  fortified  camp  in 
which  their  spoils  and  the  women  and  wounded 
could  be  lelt,  and  by  which  their  ships  could  lie. 
Any  reader  who  has  travelled  on  the  Great  Western 
Railway  has  crossed  the  very  spot,  a  few  hundred 
yards  east  of  the  station.  The  present  racecourse 
must  have  been  within  the  Danish  lines. 

Two  days  sufficed  for  rest  and  the  first  necessary 
works,  and  on  the  third  a  large  part  of  the  army 
started  on  a  plundering  and  exploring  expedition 

4 


74  LIFE   OF   ALFKEl)    THh:    GREAT. 

under  two  of  their  jarls.  At  Englefield,  a  village 
still  bearing  the  same  name,  some  six  miles  due 
west  of  Eeading,  in  the  vale  of  Keunet,  —  where 
the  present  county  member  lives  in  a  house  wliich 
Queen  Bess  visited  more  than  once,  —  they  came 
across  Alderman  Ethel wulf,  with  such  of  the  Berk- 
shire men  as  he  had  been  able  hastily  to  gather  in 
these  few  days.  Tlie  Christians  were  mueli  fewer 
in  number,  but  the  brave  Ethelwulf  led  them 
straight  to  the  attack  with  the  words,  "They  be 
more  than  we,  but  fear  them  not.  Our  Captain, 
Christ,  is  braver  than  they."  The  news  of  that 
first  encounter  must  have  cheered  the  King  and 
Alfred,  who  were  busy  gathering  their  forces  fur- 
ther west,  for  Ethelwulf  slew  one  of  the  jarls  and 
drove  the  plunderers  back  to  their  intrenchments 
with  a  great  slaughter.  The  Saxon  Chronicle  says 
that  one  of  the  Sidrocs  was  the  jarl  slain  at  Engle- 
field ;  but  this  could  scarcely  be,  as  the  same  author- 
ity, supported  by  Asser,  gives  both  the  Sidrocs  on 
the  death-roll  of  Ashdown.  Four  days  afterwards 
Ethelred  and  Alfred  march  suddenly  to  Eeading 
with  a  large  force,  and  surprise  and  cut  to  pieces  a 
number  of  tlie  Pagans  who  were  outside  their  in- 
trenchments. Then,  while  the  Saxons  were  prepar- 
ing to  encamp,  kings  and  jarls  rushed  out  on  them 
with  their  whole  power,  and  the  tide  of  battle  rolled 
backwards  and  forwards  over  the  low  meadows  out- 
side the  royal  burgh,  victory  inclining  now  to  one 
side,  now  to  the  other.  In  the  end,  after  great . 
slaughter  on  both  sides,  the  Saxons  gave  way,  and 
the  young  king  and  his  brother  fell  back  from 
Eeading,  leaving  the  body  of  the  brave  and  faithful 


THE    FIRST    WAVE.  75 

Ethelwulf  among  tlie  dead.  It  i.s  said  that  the 
Pagans  dragged  it  to  Derby.  What  matter !  The 
strong  soul  had  done  its  work,  and  gone  to  its  re- 
ward. Small  need  of  tombs  for  the  bodies  of  the 
brave  and  faithful, — of  such  men  the  whole  land 
and  the  hearts  of  its  people  is  the  tomb. 

A  few  lines  in  a  later  chronicler  liave  here  de- 
ceived even  so  acute  and  accurate  a  writer  as  Dr. 
Pauli,  who  says  that  Ethelred  and  Alfred  were  pur- 
sued from  Reading  field  as  far  as  Twyford,  and 
crossed  the  Thames  at  a  ford  near  Windsor,  which 
was  unknown  to  the  Danes.  Had  this  really  been 
so,  they  must  have  gone  due  east,  away  from  all 
their  resources,  and,  the  battle  having  been  fought 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Thames,  nnist  have  crossed 
into  ]\Iercia,  leaving  the  whole  of  Wessex  open  to 
the  pagan  Iiost.  Dr.  Pauli,  and  the  autliorities  he 
has  followed,  going  on  this  hypothesis,  are  at  a  loss 
as  to  the  scene  of  the  next  great  battle,  that  of 
Ascesdune,  not  knowing  apparently  that  there  is  a 
district  of  that  name  in  Berksliire,  at  the  western 
end  of  the  county,  on  the  summit  of  the  chalk  liills 
which  run  through  the  county  as  a  backbone  from 
Goring  to  Swindon.  Tradition  agrees  with  the  de- 
scription of  tlie  field  in  the  oldest  chroniclers  in 
marking  this  Aslidown  as  the  spot  wliere  the  great 
fight  was  fought.  Ethelred  and  Alfred  then  fell 
back  with  their  broken  bands  along  the  south  liank 
of  the  Thames  westward,  until  they  struck  the  hills, 
and  then  still  back  along  the  ancient  track  known 
as  the  Eidgeway,  past  Ilsley  and  past  the  royal 
bui'gh  of  Wantage,  Alfred's  birthplace,  from  which 
they  probably  drew  the  reinforcements  which  jus- 


76  LIFE   OF   ALl'KED   THF.   GREAT. 

tilled  them  in  turning  to  bay  on  the  fourth  day 
after  the  disaster  at  Heading.  The  Pagans  were 
on  their  track  with  their  whole  host  (except  King 
Gutlirum  and  his  men),  in  two  divisions ;  one 
commanded  by  the  two  kings  Bagsac  and  Half- 
dene,  the  other  by  the  jarls.  Ethelred,  on  per- 
ceiving this  disposition  of  the  enemy,  divided  his 
forces,  taking  command  himself  of  the  division 
which  was  to  act  against  the  kings,  and  giving  the 
other  to  Alfred.  Each  side  threw  up  liasty  earth- 
works, the  remains  of  which  may  be  seen  to  this 
day  on  at  least  three  spots  of  the  downs,  the  high- 
est point  of  which  is  White  Horse  Hill ;  and  all  of 
which,  according  to  old  maps,  are  included  in  the 
district  known  as  Ashdown.  That  highest  point 
had  been  seized  by  the  Pagans,  and  here  the  op- 
posing hosts  rested  by  their  watch-fires  through  the 
cold  March  night.  We  may  fancy  from  the  one 
camp  the  song  of  Eegner  Lodbrog  beguiling  the 
night-watches  :  "  We  fought  with  swords  !  Young 
men  should  march  up  to  the  conflict  of  arms.  ^lan 
should  meet  man  and  never  give  groimd.  In  this 
hath  ever  stood  the  nobleness  of  the  warrior.  He 
who  aspires  to  the  love  of  his  mistress  should  be 
dauntless  in  the  clash  of  arms."  In  the  other 
camp  we  know  that  by  one  fire  lay  a  youth  who 
carried  in  his  bosom  the  Psalms  of  David  written 
out  in  a  fair  hand,  which  he  was  wont  to  read  in 
all  intervals  of  rest.  Here,  too,  is  a  son  of  Odin  of 
the  pure  royal  lineage,  who  will  come  to  the  clash 
of  arms  on  the  morrow  in  the  strength  of  "  the 
Lord  of  Hosts,  who  teacheth  his  hands  to  war  and 
his  fingers  to  fight." 


THE    FIRST    WAVE.  77 

At  early  dawn  tlie  hosts  are  on  foot.  Let  Alfred's 
old  friend  tell  the  tale  in  his  own  words  :  "  Alfred, 
we  have  been  told  by  some  who  were  there  and 
would  not  lie,  marched  up  promptly  with  his  men 
to  give  battle.  But  King  Ethelred  stayed  long  time 
in  his  tent  at  prayer,  hearing  the  mass,  and  sent 
word  that  he  would  not  leave  it  till  the  priest  had 
done,  or  abandon  God's  help  ibr  that  of  man.  And 
he  did  so,  too,  which  afterwards  availed  him  much, 
as  we  shall  declare  more  fully.  Now  the  Christians 
had  determined  that  King  Ethelred  with  his  men 
should  fight  the  two  pagan  kings,  and  that  All'red 
his  brother  with  his  men  should  take  the  chance  of 
war  against  the  earls.  Things  being  so  arranged, 
the  King  remained  long  time  in  prayer,  w'hife  the 
Pagans  pressed  on  swiftly  to  the  fight.  Then  Al- 
fred, though  holding  the  lower  command,  could  no 
longer  support  the  onslaught  of  the  enemy  without 
retreating,  or  charging  upon  them  without  waiting 
for  his  brother."  A  moment  of  fearful  anxiety  this, 
we  may  note,  for  the  young  prince.  But  he  has  a 
strong  heart  for  such  a  crisis ;  and,  dreading  the 
effect  on  his  men  of  one  step  backwards,  puts  him- 
self at  their  head  and  leads  them  up  the  slope 
against  the  whole  pagan  host  "  witli  the  rush  of  a 
wild  boar "  {aprino  more).  "  For  he  too  relied  on 
the  help  of  God,"  Asser  goes  on,  and  also  we  see 
had  already  learnt  something  from  the  Reading 
disaster,  for  "he  formed  his  men  in  a  dense  pha- 
lanx to  iheet  the  foe,"  which  was  never  broken  in 
that  Ions  fight.  Mass  being  over,  Ethebed  comes 
up  to  the  help  of  his  brother,  and  the  battle  raged 
alono-  the  whole  hillside.      "  But  here  I  must  in- 


78  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

form  those  who  are  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  the 
field  of  battle  was  not  equal  for  both  sides.  The 
Pagans  occupied  the  higher  ground,  and  the  Chris- 
tians came  up  from  below.  There  w^as  also  in  that 
place  a  single  stunted  thorn-tree,  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  own  eyes.  Kound  this  tree  the  op- 
posing hosts  came  together  with  loud  shouts  from 
all  sides,  the  one  party  to  pursue  their  wicked  course, 
the  other  to  fight  for  their  lives,  their  wives  and 
children,  and  their  country.  And,  when  botli  sides 
liad  fought  long  and  bravely,  at  last  the  Pagans  by 
God's  judgment  gave  way,  being  no  longer  able  to 
abide  the  Christian  onslaught,  and  after  losing  great 
part  of  their  army  broke  in  shameful  flight.  One 
of  their  two  kings  and  five  jarls  were  there  slain, 
together  with  many  thousand  Pagans,  wlio  covered 
with  their  bodies  the  whole  plain  of  Ashdown. 
There  fell  in  that  fight  King  Bagsac  (by  the  hand, 
as  some  say,  of  Ethelred),  Earl  Sidroc  the  elder  and 
Earl  Sidroc  the  younger,  Earl  Osbern,  Earl  Frene, 
and  Earl  Harald.  And  all  tlie  pagan  host  pursued 
its  flight,  not  only  until  night,  but  through  the 
next  day,  even  until  they  reached  tlie  stronghold 
from  which  they  had  come  fortli.  The  Christians 
followed,  slaying  all  they  could  reach  until  dark." 
Ethelward,  the  clironicler,  the  great-grandson  of 
Ethelred,  adds :  "  Neither  before  or  since  was  ever 
such  slaughter  known  since  the  Saxons  first  gained 
England  by  their  arms." 

The  wliole  story  does  not  take  more  than  ten  lines 
in  the  chroniclers,  but  conceive  what  that  short  ten 
or  twenty  minutes  at  most  must  have  been  in  the 
life  of  Alfred.     A  youth  for  tlie  first  time  in  inde- 


h'ittg  Alfred  at  the  Battle  of  Ashiltnvn 


THE   FIRST   WAVE.  79 

pendent  command,  with  the  memory  of  the  mishap 
four  days  back  at  Heading  as  his  only  experience  in 
war,  opposed  to  two  liostile  armies  each  as  numerous 
as  his  own,  flushed  with  tlieir  late  victory,  and  led 
by  the  most  terrible  waniore  of  the  time,  —  he  has  to 
decide  there,  peremptorily,  the  fate  of  England  hang- 
ing on  his  judgment,  whether  he  will  give  ground 
and  wait  for  his  brother,  or  himself  attack.  Stand 
still  he  cannot,  as  the  enemy  swarm  on  the  slopes 
above,  and,  partially  covered  by  the  formation  of  the 
ground,  already  ply  his  men  witli  missiles  to  which 
they  can  make  no  usefid  reply.  After  that  Ash- 
down  dawn  every  future  supreme  moment  and  cri- 
sis of  his  eventful  life  must  have  come  on  him  as 
child's-play.  "  Bagsac  and  the  two  Sidrocs,  at  the 
top  of  the  down,  w^ith  double  my  numbers,  already 
overlapping  my  flanks  —  Ethelred  still  at  mass  — 
dare  I  go  up  at  them  ?  In  the  name  of  God  and 
St.  Cuthbert,  yes."  He  who  could  so  answer,  and 
thereupon  himself  lead  up  the  hill  in  wild-boar 
fashion  (ajyritio  more),  has  hereafter  no  question  he 
need  fear  in  the  domain  of  war.  That  moment  has 
hardened  his  nerve  to  flint,  and  his  judgment,  amid 
the  clash  of  arms,  to  steel.  Through  all  those  weary 
years  of  battle  and  misfortune  that  follow,  there  is 
in  Alfred  no  sign  of  indecision  or  faint-heartedness. 
Against  any  enemy  but  the  Danes,  such  a  victory 
as  that  of  Ashdown  would  have  been  decisive  for  a 
generation,  but  the  hopeless  nature  of  the  war  which 
the  West  Saxons  had  now  to  maintain  cannot  be 
better  illustrated  than  by  the  events  which  imme- 
diately follow.  The  scattered  remains  of  the  pagan 
army  came  back  into  the  Reading  intrenchments  in 


80  LIFE    OF    ALIIJFI)    TIIK    GKKAT. 

the  next  few  days,  and  there  seem  to  have  found 
Guthnim  and  his  troops,  with  new  reinforcements 
of  phinderers  from  East  Anglia  and  over  the  sea^ 
upon  whom  they  rallied  at  once.  In  a  fortnight 
they  are  again  ready  for  a  foray,  and,  avoiding  the 
chalk  hills,  the  scene  of  their  late  defeat,  a  large 
band  of  them  strike  across  the  Kennet,  and  so  away 
soutliwest,  through  new  country  into  Hampshire. 
Ethelred  and  Alfred,  hastening  down  after  them, 
catch  them  at  Basing  in  a  strong  position,  before 
which  the  Saxons  are  worsted,  but,  as  is  signifi- 
cantly added,  the  Pagans  get  no  spoil  in  the  expedi- 
tion. One  more  battle  the  brave  Ethelred  was  des- 
tined, about  two  months  later,  to  fight  for  his  people. 
It  is  said  to  have  happened  at  a  place  called  Merton, 
but  could  scarcely  have  been  at  the  village  in  Surrey 
of  that  name,  as  is  usually  supposed.  Guthrum 
would  never  have  struck  back  through  a  country 
already  pillaged,  nor,  had  he  done  so,  were  Ethelred 
and  AKred  likely  to  have  followed,  leaving  the  in- 
trenched camp  at  Eeading  in  their  rear,  and  their 
own  homes  open  to  the  garrison.  However,  at  the 
place  called  ^Merton  by  the  chroniclers,  wherever  it 
may  be,  the  two  brothers  fought  for  the  last  time 
together  against  their  unwearied  foes.  Large  rein- 
forcements, "  an  innumerable  summer  army,"  as 
Ethelward  calls  them,  had  come  to  the  Danish  head- 
quarters at  Eeading  in  the  last  few  weeks.  They 
had  now  regained  their  old  superiority  in  numbers, 
and  fought  again  in  two  divisions.  Through  the 
greater  part  of  the  day  the  Saxons  had  the  better, 
but  towards  evening  fortune  changed,  and  at  last, 
after  great  loss  on  both  sides,  the  Pagan  "  had  pos- 


THE   FIRST   WAVE.  81 

session  of  the  place  of  death."  Edmund,  the  new- 
bishop  of  Sherborne,  successor  to  the  gallant  Eal- 
stan,  was  here  slain,  and  Ethelred  himself  is  said  to 
have  been  mortally  wounded.  At  any  rate  he  died 
almost  immediately  after  the  battle,  and  was  buried 
by  Alfred,  with  kingly  honors,  in  Wimborne  Min- 
ster. Sherborne,  the  burial-place  of  the  family  of 
Cerdic,  had  for  the  moment  no  bishop,  was  closed 
perhaps,  may  even  have  been  in  pagan  hands.  And 
thus,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  Alfred  ascended 
the  throne  of  his  fathers,  which  was  tottering,  as  it 
seemed,  to  its  fall. 


82  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

ALFRED   ON   THE   THRONE. 

"  0  Lord  my  God,  Thou  hast  made  Thy  sen'ant  king:  and  I  am  but 
a  little  child:  I  know  not  how  to  go  out  or  to  come  in  " 

THE  throne  of  the  West  Saxons  was  not  an 
inheritance  to  be  desired  in  the  year  871,  when 
Alfred  succeeded  his  gallant  brother.  It  descended 
on  him  without  comment  or  ceremony,  as  a  matter 
of  course.  There  was  not  even  an  assembly  oi"  the 
witan  to  declare  the  succession,  as  in  ordinaiy  times. 
"With  Guthrum  and  Hinguar  in  their  intrenched 
camp  at  the  confluence  of  the  Thames  and  Kennet, 
and  fresh  bands  of  marauders  sailing  up  the  former 
river,  and  constantly  swelling  the  ranks  of  the 
pagan  army  during  these  summer  months,  there  was 
neither  time  nor  heart  amongst  the  wise  men  of  the 
West  Saxons  for  strict  adherence  to  the  letter  of  the 
constitution,  however  venerable.  We  have  seen, 
too,  that  the  succession  had  already  been  settled  by 
the  Great  Coimcil,  when  they  formally  accepted  the 
provisions  of  Ethelwulf 's  will,  that  his  three  sons 
should  succeed  to  the  exclusion  of  the  children  of 
any  one  of  them. 

The  idea  of  strict  hereditaiy  succession  has  taken 
so  strong  a  hold  of  us  English  in  later  times  that  it 
is  necessary  constantly  to  insist  that  our  old  English 
kingship  was  elective.     Alfred's  title  was  based  on 


ALFRED   ON   THE  THRONE.  83 

election  ;  and  so  little  was  the  idea  of  usurpation, 
or  of  any  wrong  done  to  the  two  infant  sons  of 
Ethelred,  connected  with  his  accession,  that  even  the 
lineal  descendant  of  one  of  those  sons,  in  his  chron- 
icle of  that  eventful  year,  does  not  pause  to  notice 
the  fact  that  Ethelred  left  children.  He  is  writing 
to  his  "  beloved  cousin  jMatilda,"  to  instruct  her  in 
the  things  which  he  had  received  from  ancient  tra- 
ditions, "  of  the  history  of  our  race  down  to  these  two 
kings  from  whom  we  have  our  origin."  "  Tlie  fourth 
son  of  Ethelwulf,"  he  writes,  "  was  Ethelred,  who, 
after  the  death  of  Ethelbert,  succeeded  to  the  king- 
dom, and  was  also  my  grandfather's  grandfather. 
The  fifth  was  Alfred,  who  succeeded  after  all  the 
others  to  the  whole  sovereignty,  and  was  your  grand- 
father's grandfather."  And  so  passes  on  to  the  next 
facts,  without  a  word  as  to  the  claims  of  his  own 
lineal  ancestor,  though  he  had  paused  in  his  narrative 
at  this  point  for  the  special  purpose  of  introducing 
a  little  family  episode. 

Tliis  king  has  indeed  been  anointed  by  the  Pope, 
named  by  his  royal  father  and  brother,  and  elected  by 
his  people ;  may  not  we  add,  taking  Mr.  Carlyle's 
test,  that  he  had  been  also  elected  for  them  in 
heaven  ?  If  it  will  not  hold  in  his  case,  we  must 
indeed  throw  up  this  idea  of  election  altogether,  and 
allow  that  Heaven  has  nothing  to  say  to  the  business. 
But  we  who  value  our  England  as  we  have  it  will 
not  just  now  dispute  about  where  or  how  Alfred  got 
elected,  or  from  whence  the  right  came  to  him  to 
stand  forth  in  this  dark  hour,  a  shepherd  who  wiU 
give  his  life  for  the  sheep,  a  monarch  who  has  to 
tread  the  winepress  alona     Enough  for  us  that  he. 


54  LIFE   OF   ALFEED    THE   GREAT. 

and  no  other,  was  found  there  ;  and  so,  that  we  have 
our  own  country,  and  not  another  kind  of  country 
altogether  in  which  to  live. 

When  Alfred  had  buried  his  brother  in  the  cloisters 
of  "VVimborne  Minster,  and  had  time  to  look  out  from 
his  Dorsetshire  resting-place,  and  take  stock  of  the 
immediate  prospects  and  work  whicli  lay  before  him, 
we  can  well  believe  that  those  historians  are  right 
who  have  told  us  that  for  the  moment  he  lost  heart 
and  hope,  and  suffered  himself  to  doubt  whether 
God  would  by  his  hand  deliver  the  afflicted  nation 
from  its  terrible  straits.  In  the  eight  pitched  battles 
which  we  find  by  the  Saxon  Chronicle  (Asser  giving 
seven  only)  had  already  been  fought  with  the  j)agan 
army,  the  flower  of  the  youth  of  these  parts  of  the 
West  Saxon  kingdom  must  have  fallen.  The  other 
Teutonic  kingdoms  of  the  island,  of  which  he  was 
overlord,  and  so  bound  to  defend,  had  ceased  to  exist 
except  in  name,  or  lay  utterly  powerless,  like  Mercia, 
awaiting  their  doom.  Kent,  Sussex,  and  Surrey, 
which  were  now  an  integTal  part  of  the  royal  inher- 
itance of  his  own  family,  were  at  the  mercy  of  his 
enemies,  and  he  without  a  hope  of  striking  a  blow  for 
them.  London  had  been  pillaged,  and  was  in  ruins. 
Even  in  Wessex  proper,  Berkshire  and  Hampshire, 
with  parts  of  Wilts  and  Doi"set,  had  been  crossed  and 
recrossed  by  marauding  bands,  in  whose  track  only 
smoking  ruins  and  dead  bodies  were  found.  "  The 
land  was  as  the  garden  of  Eden  before  them,  and 
behind  them  a  desolate  wilderness."  These  bands 
were  at  this  very  moment  on  foot,  striking  into  new 
districts  further  to  the  southwest  than  they  had 
yet  reached.     If  the  rich  lands  of  Somersetshire  and 


ALFRED    ON    THE   THRONE.  85 

Devonshire,  and  the  yet  unphindered  parts  of  Wilts 
and  Dorset,  are  to  be  saved,  it  must  be  by  prompt 
and  decisive  fighting,  and  it  is  time  for  a  king  to  be 
in  the  field.  But  it  is  a  month  from  his  brother's 
death  before  Alfred  can  gather  men  enough  round 
his  standard  to  take  the  field  openly.  Even  then, 
when  he  fights,  it  is  "  almost  against  his  will,"  for  his 
ranks  are  sadly  thin,  and  the  whole  pagan  army  are 
before  him,  at  Wilton  near  Salisbury.  The  action 
would  seem  to  have  been  brought  on  by  the  impet- 
uosity of  Alfred's  own  men,  whose  spirit  was  still 
unbroken,  and  their  confidence  in  their  young  king 
enthusiastic.  There  was  a  long  and  fierce  fight  as 
usual,  during  the  earlier  part  of  which  the  Saxons  had 
the  advantage,  though  greatly  outnumbered.  But 
again  we  get  glimpses  of  the  old  trap  of  a  feigned 
flight  and  ambuscade,  into  which  they  fell,  and  so 
again  lose  "  possession  of  the  place  of  death,"  the 
ultimate  test  of  victory.  "  This  year,"  says  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  "  nine  general  battles  were  fought  against 
the  army  in  the  kingdom  south  of  the  Thames  ;  be- 
sides which,  Alfred  the  king's  brother,  and  single 
aldermen  and  king's  thanes,  oftentimes  made  attacks 
on  them,  which  were  not  counted ;  and  within  the 
year  one  king  and  nine  jarls  were  slain."  Wilton 
was  the  last  of  these  general  actions,  and  not  long 
afterwards,  probably  in  the  autumn,  Alfred  made 
peace  with  the  Pagans,  on  condition  that  they  should 
quit  Wessex  at  once.  They  were  probably  allowed 
to  carry  off  whatever  spoils  they  may  have  been  able 
to  accumulate  in  their  Heading  camp,  but  I  can  find 
no  authority  for  believing  that  Alfred  fell  into  the 
fatal  and  humiliating  mistake  of  either  paying  them 


86  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

anything,  or  giving  hostages,  or  promising  tribute. 
There  are  constant  notices  of  such  payments  in  the 
chroniclers  when  any  such  were  actually  made,  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  case  of  ]Mercia  in  the  following 
year ;  so,  in  the  absence  of  positive  affirmative  evi- 
dence, I  am  not  prepared  to  believe  that  Guthrum 
and  his  swarm  of  pirates  were  bought  out  of  Wessex 
by  AKred  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign.  It  seems  far 
more  likely  that  they  had  had  more  desperate  fight- 
ing, and  less  plunder,  than  suited  them  in  those  eight 
or  nine  months  since  they  broke  up  their  Minter 
quarters  at  Thetford,  and  were  glad  of  peace  for  the 
present.  This  young  king,  who,  as  crown  prince, 
led  the  West  Saxons  up  the  slopes  at  Ashdown, 
when  Bagsac,  the  two  Sidrocs,  and  the  rest  were 
killed,  and  who  has  very  much  their  own  way  of 
fighting,  —  going  into  the  clash  of  arms,  "when  the 
hard  steel  rings  upon  the  high  helmets,"  and  "  the 
beasts  of  prey  have  ample  spoil,"  like  a  veritable 
child  of  Odin,  —  is  clearly  one  whom  it  is  best  to 
let  alone,  at  any  rate  so  long  as  easy  plunder  and 
rich  lands  are  to  be  found  elsewhere,  without  such 
poison-mad  fighting  for  every  herd  of  cattle  and 
rood  of  ground.  Indeed  I  think  the  careful  reader 
may  trace  from  the  date  of  Ashdown  a  decided  un- 
willingness on  the  part  of  the  Danes  to  meet  Alfred, 
except  when  they  could  catch  him  at  disastrous  odds. 
They  succeeded  indeed  for  a  time  in  overrunning 
almost  the  whole  of  his  kingdom,  in  driving  him  an 
exile  for  a  few  wretched  weeks  to  the  shelter  of  his 
own  forests ;  but  whenever  he  was  once  fairly  in  the 
field,  they  preferred  taking  refuge  in  strong  places, 
and  offering  treaties  and  hostages,  to  the  actual 
arbitrament  of  battle. 


ALFRED   OX   THE  THKOXE.  87 

So  the  pagan  array  quitted  Reading,  and  wintered 
in  872  in  the  neighborhood  of  London,  at  which 
place  they  receive  proposals  from  Buhred,  king  of 
the  jNIercians,  Alfred's  brother-in-law,  and  for  a 
money  payment  pass  him  and  his  people  contemptu- 
ously by  for  the  time,  making  some  kind  of  treaty 
of  peace  with  them,  and  go  northward  into  what 
has  now  become  their  own  country.  They  winter 
in  Lincolnshire,  sratherincr  fresh  strength  durin^:  873 
from  the  never-failing  sources  of  supply  across  the 
narrow  seas.  Again,  however,  in  this  year  of 
ominous  rest,  they  renew  their  sham  peace  with 
poor  Buhred  and  his  Mercians,  who  thus  manage  to 
tide  it  over  another  winter.  In  874,  however,  their 
time  has  come.  In  the  spring  the  pagan  army 
under  the  three  kings,  Guthrum,  Oskytal,  and 
Amund,  burst  into  ^lercia.  In  this  one  only  of 
the  English  Teutonic  kingdoms  they  find  neither 
fighting  nor  suffering  hero  to  cross  their  way,  and 
leave  behind  for  a  thousand  years  the  memory  of  a 
noble  end,  cut  out  there  in  some  half-dozen  lines  of 
an  old  chronicler,  but  full  of  life  and  inspiration  to 
this  day  for  all  Englishmen.  Here  we  have  neither  a 
pious  Algar  nor  lay-brother  Toly,  calmly  taking  their 
last  sacrament  at  sunbreak,  within  hearing  of  the 
pagan  rites  over  their  fallen  king;  nor  Alderman 
Ethelwulf  witli  his  faith  in  the  captaincy  of  Christ ; 
nor  King  Edmund,  "gentle  landlord,"  and  slow  in 
battle,  but  with  the  constancy  that  can  brave  all 
torture,  if  the  will  of  God  l)e  so ;  still  less  a  king 
who  carries  tlie  Psalms  of  DaWd  in  his  bosom 
under  liis  armor,  and  will  fight  nine  pitclied  bat- 
tles in  a  year,  whose  presence  lifts  the  hearts  of 


88  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

men,  and  nerves  their  arms  till  they  cease  to  reckon 
odds.  With  no  man  to  lead  them,  what  can  these 
poor  Mercians  do  ?  The  whole  country  is  o^•errun, 
and  reduced  under  pagan  rule  Mitliout  a  blow 
struck,  so  far  as  we  know,  and  within  the  year. 
This  poor  Buhred,  titular  king  of  the  Mercians,  — 
who  has  made  believe  to  rule  this  English  kinsrdom 
these  twenty-two  years,  who  in  his  time  has 
marched  wdth  his  father-in-law  Ethelwulf  across 
North  Wales,  has  beleaguered  Nottingham  with 
his  brothers-in-law,  Ethelred  and  Alfred,  six  years 
back,  not  without  show  of  manhood,  —  sees  for  his 
part  nothing  for  it  under  such  circumstances  but  to 
get  away  as  swiftly  as  possible,  as  many  so-called 
kings  have  done  before  him  and  since.  Tlie  West 
Saxon  court  is  no  place  for  him,  quite  other  views 
of  kingship  prevailing  in  those  parts.  So  the  poor 
Buhred  breaks  away  from  his  anchors,  leaving  liis 
wife  Ethelswitha  even,  in  his  haste,  to  take  refuge 
with  her  brother ;  or  is  it  that  the  heart  of  the 
daughter  of  the  race  of  Cerdic  swells  against  leav- 
ing  the  land  which  her  sires  had  won,  the  people 
they  had  planted  there,  in  the  moment  of  sorest 
need  ?  In  any  case  Buhred  drifts  away  alone  across 
into  France,  and  so  towards  the  winter  to  Eome. 
There  he  dies  at  once,  about  Christmas  time,  874, 
of  shame  and  sorrow  probably,  or  of  a  broken  heart 
as  we  say ;  at  any  rate  having  this  kingly  gift  left 
in  him,  that  he  cannot  live  and  look  on  the  ruin 
of  his  people,  as  St.  Edmund's  brother  Edwold  is 
doing  in  these  same  years,  "  near  a  clear  well  at 
Carnelia,  in  Dorsetshire,"  doing  the  hermit  business 
there  on  bread  and  water. 


ALFKED    US    Till-:    TIIUOXE.  8'J 

The  English  in  Eome  bury  away  poor  Buhred, 
with  all  the  honors,  in  the  church  of  St.  Clary's,  to 
which  the  English  schools  rebuilt  by  his  father-in- 
law  Ethelwulf  were  attached.  Ethelswitha  visited, 
or  started  to  visit,  the  tomb  years  later,  we  are  told, 
in  888,  %vhen  Mercia  had  risen  to  new  life  under 
her  great  brother's  rule.  Through  these  same 
months  Guthrum,  Oskytal,  and  the  rest  are  winter- 
ing at  Repton,  after  destroying  there  the  cloister 
where  the  kingly  line  of  Mercia  lie  ;  disturbing, 
perhaps,  the  bones  of  the  great  Offa,  whom  Charle- 
magne had  to  treat  as  an  equal. 

Xeither  of  the  pagan  kings  are  inclined  at  this 
time  to  settle  in  Mercia  ;  so,  casting  about  what  to 
do  with  it,  they  light  on  "  a  certain  foolish  man,"  a 
king's  thane,  one  Ceolwulf  and  set  him  up  as  a 
sort  of  King  Popinjay.  From  this  Ceolwulf  they 
take  hostages  for  the  payment  of  yearly  tribute  (to 
be  wrung  out  of  these  poor  Mercians  on  pain  of 
dethronement),  and  for  the  surrender  of  the  king- 
dom to  them  on  whatever  day  they  would  have  it 
back  again.  Foolish  king's  thanes,  turned  into  King 
Popinjays  by  Pagans,  and  left  to  play  at  govern- 
ment on  such  terms,  are  not  pleasant  or  profitable 
objects  in  such  times  as  these  of  a  thousand  years 
since,  —  or  indeed  in  any  times,  for  the  matter  of  that. 
So  let  us  finish  with  Ceolwulf,  just  noting  that  a  year 
or  two  later  his  pagan  lords  seem  to  have  found 
much  of  the  spoil  of  monasteries,  and  the  pickings 
of  earl  and  churl,  of  folkland  and  bookland,  stick- 
ing to  his  fingers,  instead  of  finding  its  way  to  their 
coffers.  This  was  far  from  their  meaning  in  setting 
him  up  in  the  high  places  of  Mercia.     So  they  just 


90  LIFE   OF    ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

strip  him,  and  thrust  him  out,  and  he  dies  in  beg- 
gary. 

This,  then,  is  the  winter's  work  of  the  great  pagan 
army  at  Eepton,  Alfred  watching  them  and  their 
work  doubtless  with  keen  eye,  —  not  without  mis- 
givings too  at  their  numbers,  swollen  again  to 
terrible  proportions  since  they  sailed  away  down 
Thames  after  Wilton  fight.  It  will  take  years  yet 
before  the  gaps  in  the  fighting  strength  of  "Wessex, 
left  by  those  nine  pitched  battles,  and  other  smaller 
fights,  will  be  filled  by  the  crop  of  youths  passing 
from  childhood  to  manhood.  An  anxious  thought 
that  for  a  young  king. 

The  Pagans,  however,  are  not  yet  ready  for  an- 
other throw  for  Wessex ;  and  so  when  Mercia  is 
sucked  dry  for  the  present,  and  will  no  longer 
suitably  maintain  so  great  a  host,  they  again  sever. 
Half  dene,  who  would  seem  to  have  joined  them 
recently,  takes  a  large  part  of  the  army  away  with 
him  northwards.  Settling  his  head-quarters  by  the 
river  Tyne,  he  subdues  all  the  land,  and  "  ofttimes 
spoils,  the  Picts  and  the  Stratliclyde  Britons." 
Amongst  other  holy  places  in  those  parts,  Halfdene 
visits  the  Isle  of  Lindisfarne,  hoping  perliaps  in 
his  pagan  soul  not  only  to  commit  ordinary  sacri- 
lege in  the  holy  places  there,  which  is  e very-day 
work  for  the  like  of  him,  but  even  to  lay  impious 
hands  on,  and  to  treat  Avith  indignity,  the  remains 
of  that  holy  man,  St.  Cuthbert,  of  whom  we  have 
already  heard,  and  who  has  become  in  due  course 
patron  and  guardian  saint  of  himters,  and  of  that 
scourge  of  Pagans,  Alfred  the  West  Saxon.  If 
such  were  his  thought,  he  is  disappointed  of  his 


ALFRED    ON    THE   Til  HON  E.  91 

sacrilege ;  for  Bishop  Eardulf  and  Abbot  Eadred  — 
devout  and  strenuous  pei-sons  —  having  timely 
warning  of  his  approach,  carry  away  tlie  sainted 
body  from  Lindisfarne,  and  for  nine  years  hide  with 
it  up  and  down  the  distracted  northern  counties,  now 
here,  now  there,  moving  that  sacred  treasure  from 
place  to  place  until  this  bitterness  is  overpast,  and 
holy  persons  and  things,  dead  or  living,  are  no 
longer  in  danger,  and  the  bodies  of  saints  may  rest 
safely  in  fixed  shrines ;  the  pagan  armies  and  dis- 
orderly persons  of  all  kinds  having  been  converted, 
or  suppressed,  in  the  mean  time.  For  which  good 
deed,  the  royal  Alfred  (in  whose  calendar  St.  Cuth- 
bert,  patron  of  huntsmen,  stands  very  high)  will 
surely  warmly  befriend  them  hereafter,  when  he 
has  settled  his  accounts  with  many  persons  and 
things.  From  the  time  of  this  incursion  of  Half- 
dene,  Xorthumbria  may  be  considered  once  more  a 
settled  state  ;  but  a  Danish,  not  a  Saxon  one. 

The  rest  and  greater  part  of  the  army,  under 
Guthrum,  Oskytal,  and  Amund,  on  leaving  Eepton, 
strike  southeast,  through  wdiat  was  Landlord  Ed- 
mund's country,  to  Cambridge,  where,  in  their  usual 
heathen  way,  they  pass  the  winter  of  875. 


92  LIFE   OF  ALFKEL)   THE   GKEAT. 


CHAPTER   YIII. 

THE  SECOND   WAVE. 

THE  downfall,  exile,  and  death  of  his  hrother- 
in-law  in  874  must  have  warned  Alfred,  if  he 
had  any  need  of  warning,  that  no  treaty  could  bind 
these  foemen,  and  that  he  had  nothing  to  look  for 
but  the  same  measure  as  soon  as  the  pagan  leaders 
felt  themselves  strong  enough  to  mete  it  out  to  liim 
and  Wessex.  In  the  following  year  we  accordingly 
find  him  on  the  alert,  and  taking  action  in  a  new 
direction.  These  heathen  pirates,  he  sees,  fight  his 
people  at  terrible  advantage  by  reason  of  their  com- 
mand of  tlie  sea.  This  enables  them  to  choose  their 
own  point  of  attack,  not  only  along  the  sea-coast,  but 
up  every  river  as  far  as  their  light  galleys  can  swim ; 
to  retreat  unmolested,  at  their  own  time,  whenever 
the  fortune  of  war  turns  against  them  ;  to  bring  re- 
inforcements of  men  and  supplies  to  the  scene  of 
action  without  fear  of  hindrance.  His  Saxons  have 
long  since  given  up  their  seafaring  habits.  They 
have  become  before  all  things  an  agricultural  peo- 
ple, drawing  almost  everytliing  they  need  from  their 
own  soil.  The  few  foreign  tastes  they  have  are  sup- 
plied by  foreign  traders.  However,  if  Wessex  is  to 
be  made  safe,  the  sea-kings  must  be  met  on  their 
own  element ;  and  so,  with  what  expenditure  of 
patience   and  money,  and  encouraging  words  and 


THE   SECOND    WAVE.  93 

example  we  may  easily  conjecture,  the  young  king 
gets  together  a  small  fleet,  and  himself  takes  com- 
mand of  it.  We  have  no  clew  to  the  point  on  the 
south  coast  where  the  admiral  of  twenty-five  fights 
his  first  naval  action,  but  know  only  that  in  the 
summer  of  875  he  is  cruising  with  his  fleet,  and 
meets  seven  tall  ships  of  the  enemy.  One  of  these 
he  captures,  and  the  rest  make  off  after  a  hard  fight, 
—  no  small  encouragement  to  the  sailor  king,  who 
has  thus  for  another  year  saved  Saxon  homesteads 
from  devastation  Ly  fire  and  sword. 

The  second  wave  of  invasion  had  now  at  last 
gathered^ weight  and  volume  enough,  and  broke  on 
the  king  and  people  of  the  West  Saxons.  The 
year  876  was  still  young  when  the  whole  pagan 
army,  which  had  wintered  at  and  about  Cambridge, 
marched  to  their  ships,  and  put  to  sea.  Guthrum 
was  in  command,  Avitli  the  other  two  kings,  Anketel 
and  Amund,  as  his  lieutenants,  under  whom  was  a 
host  as  formidable  as  that  which  had  marched  across 
Mercia  througli  forest  and  waste,  and  sailed  up  the 
Thames  five  years  before,  to  the  assault  of  Reading. 
There  must  have  been  some  few  days  of  harassing 
suspense,  for  we  cannot  suppose  that  Alfred  was  not 
aware  of  the  movements  of  his  terrible  foes.  Prob- 
ably his  new  fleet  cruised  off  the  south  coast  on  the 
watch  for  them,  and  all  up  the  Thames  there  were 
gloomy  watchings,  and  forebodings  of  a  repetition 
of  the  evil  days  of  871.  But  the  suspense  Avas  soon 
over.  Passing  by  the  Thames's  mouth,  and  through 
Dover  Straits,  the  pagan  fleet  sailed,  and  westward 
still  past  many  tempting  harbors  and  rivers'  mouths, 
until  they  came  off  the  coast  of  Dorsetshire.    There 


94  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

they  land  at  "NVareham,  and  seize  and  fortify  the 
neck  of  land  between  the  rivei's  Frome  and  Piddle, 
on  which  stood,  when  they  landed,  a  fortress  of  the 
"West  Saxons  and  a  monastery  of  holy  virgins.  For- 
tress and  monastery  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Danes, 
who  set  to  work  at  once  to  throw  up  earthworks  and 
otherwise  fortify  a  space  large  enough  to  contain 
their  army,  and  all  spoil  brought  in  by  marauding 
bands  from  this  hitherto  unpluudered  country.  This 
fortified  camp  was  soon  very  strong,  except  on  the 
western  side,  upon  which  Alfred  shortly  appeared 
with  a  body  of  horsemen,  and  such  other  troops  as 
could  be  gathered  hastily  together.  The^  detach- 
ments of  the  Pagans,  who  were  already  out  pil- 
laging the  whole  neighborhood,  fell  back  apparently 
before  him,  concentrating  on  the  Wareham  camp. 
Before  its  outworks  Alfred  paused.  He  is  too  ex- 
perienced a  soldier  now  to  risk  at  the  outset  of  a 
campaign  such  a  disaster  as  that  which  he  and 
Ethelred  had  sustained  in  their  attempt  to  assault 
the  camp  at  Reading  in  871.  He  is  just  strong 
enough  to  keep  the  Pagans  witliin  their  lines,  but 
has  no  margin  to  spare.  So  he  sits  down  before 
the  camp,  but  no  battle  is  fought,  neither  he  nor 
Guthrum  caring  to  bring  matters  to  that  issue. 
Soon  negotiations  are  commenced,  and  again  a 
treaty  is  made. 

On  this  occasion  Alfred  would  seem  to  have 
taken  special  pains  to  bind  his  faithless  foe.  All 
the  holy  relics  which  could  be  procured  from  holy 
places  in  the  neighborhood  were  brought  together, 
that  he  himself  and  his  people  might  set  the  ex- 
ample of  pledging  themselves  in  the  most  solemn 


THE   SECOND   WAVE.  95 

manner  known  to  Christian  men.  Then  a  holy 
ring  or  bracelet,  smeared  with  the  blood  of  beasts 
sacrificed  to  Woden,  was  placed  on  a  heatlien  altar. 
Upon  this  Guthrum  and  his  fellow  kings  and  earls 
swore  on  behalf  of  the  army  that  they  would  quit 
the  King's  country  and  give  hostages.  Such  an 
oatli  had  never  been  sworn  by  Danish  leader  on 
English  soil  before.  It  was  the  most  solemn  known 
to  them.  They  would  seem  also  to  have  sworn  on 
Alfred's  relics,  as  an  extra  proof  of  their  sincerity 
for  this  once,  and  their  hostages  "  from  amongst 
the  most  renowned  men  in  the  army"  were  duly 
handed  over.  Alfred  now  relaxed  liis  watch,  even 
if  he  did  not  withdraw  with  the  main  body  of  his 
army,  leaving  his  liorse  to  see  that  the  terrtis  of  the 
treaty  were  performed,  and  to  watch  the  Wareham 
camp  until  the  departure  of  the  pagan  host.  But 
neither  oath  on  sacred  ring  nor  the  risk  to  their 
hostages  weighed  with  Guthrum  and  his  followers 
when  any  advantage  was  to  be  gained  by  treachery. 
They  steal  out  of  the  camp  by  night,  surprise  and 
murder  the  Saxon  horsemen,  seize  the  horses,  and 
strike  across  the  country,  the  mounted  men  leading, 
to  Exeter,  but  leaving  a  sufficient  garrison  to  hold 
AVareham  for  the  present.  They  surprise  and  get 
possession  of  the  western  capital,  and  there  settle 
down  to  pass  the  winter.  Eolio,  fiercest  of  the 
vikinjTs,  is  said  by  Asser  to  have  passed  the  winter 
with  them  in  their  Exeter  quarters  on  his  way  to 
Xormandy ;  but  whetlier  the  great  robber  himself 
were  here  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  the  channel 
swarmed  with  pirate  fleets,  who  could  put  in  to 
Wareham  or  Exeter  at  their  discretion,  and  find  a 


96  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

safe  stronghold  in  either  place  from  "vvhich  to  cany 
fire  and  sword  through  the  unhappy  country. 

Alfred  had  vainly  endeavored  to  overtake  the 
march  to  Exeter  in  the  autumn  of  876,  and,  failing 
in  the  pursuit,  had  disbanded  his  own  troops  as 
usual,  allowing  them  to  go  to  tlieir  homes  until 
the  spring.  Before  he  could  be  afoot  again  in  the 
spring  of  877  the  main  body  of  the  Pagans  at 
Exeter  had  made  that  city  too  strong  for  any  at- 
tempt at  assault,  so  the  King  and  his  troops  could 
do  no  more  than  beleaguer  it  on  the  land  side,  as 
he  had  done  at  Wareham.  But  Guthrum  could 
laugh  at  all  efforts  of  his  great  antagonist,  and 
wait  in  confidence  the  sure  disbanding  of  the 
Saxon  troops  at  harvest-time,  so  long  as  his  ships 
held  the  sea. 

Supplies  were  soon  running  short  in  Exeter,  but 
the  Exe  was  open,  and  communications  going  on  with 
"Wareham.  It  is  arranged  that  the  camp  there  shall 
be  broken  up,  and  the  whole  garrison  with  their 
spoil  shall  join  head-quarters.  120  Danish  w^ar- 
galleys  are  freighted,  and  beat  down  channel,  but 
are  baffled  by  adverse  winds  for  nearly  a  month. 
They  and  all  their  supplies  may  be  looked  for 
any  day  in  the  Exe  when  the  wind  changes.  Al- 
fred, from  his  camp  before  Exeter,  sends  to  his 
little  fleet  to  put  to  sea.  He  cannot  himself  be 
with  them  as  in  their  first  action,  for  he  knows 
well  that  Guthrum  will  seize  the  first  moment  of 
his  absence  to  sally  from  Exeter,  break  the  Saxon 
lines,  and  scatter  his  army  in  roving  bands  over 
Devonshire,  on  their  way  back  to  the  eastern  king- 
dom.    The  Saxon  fleet  puts  out,  manned  itself,  as 


THE   SECOND   WAVE.  97 

some  say,  partly  with  sea-robbers,  hired  to  fight 
tlieir  own  people.  However  manned,  it  attacks 
bravely  a  portion  of  the  pirates.  But  a  mightier 
power  than  the  fleet  fought  for  Alfred  at  this  crisis. 
First  a  dense  fog,  and  then  a  great  storm  came  on, 
bursting  on  the  south  coast  with  such  fury  that 
the  Pagans  lost  no  less  than  100  of  their  chief 
ships  off  Swanage ;  as  mighty  a  deliverance  per- 
haps for  England  —  though  the  memory  of  it  is 
nearly  forgotten  —  as  that  which  began  in  the 
same  seas  700  years  later,  when  Drake  and  the 
sea-kings  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  hanging 
on  the  rear  of  the  Spanish  Armada  along  the 
Devon  and  Dorset  coasts,  while  the  beacons  blazed 
up  all  over  England,  and  the  whole  nation  flew 
to  arms. 

The  destruction  of  the  fleet  decided  the  fate  of 
the  siege  of  Exeter.  Once  more  negotiations  are 
opened  by  the  Pagans ;  once  more  Alfred,  fearful 
of  driving  them  to  extremities,  listens,  treats,  and 
finally  accepts  oaths  and  more  hostages,  acknowl- 
edging probably  in  sorrow  to  himself  that  he  can 
ior  the  moment  do  no  better.  And  on  this  occa- 
sion Guthrum,  being  caught  far  from  home,  and 
without  supplies  or  ships,  "  keeps  the  peace  weU," 
moving,  as  we  conjecture,  watched  jealously  by  Al- 
fred, on  the  shortest  line  across  Devon  and  Somer- 
set to  some  ford  in  the  Avon,  and  so  across  into 
Mercia,  where  he  arrives  during  harvest,  and  bil- 
lets liis  army  on  Ceolwulf,  camping  them  for  the 
winter  about  the  city  of  Gloster.  Here  they  run 
up  huts  for  themselves,  and  make  some  pretence 
of  permanent  settlement  on  the  Severn,  diWding 

5  G 


98  LIFE   OF   ALFKED    THE   GREAT. 

large  tracts  of  land  amongst  those  who  cared  to 
take  them. 

The  campaigns  of  876  -  7  are  generally  looked 
upon  as  disastrous  ones  for  the  Saxon  arms,  but 
this  view  is  certainly  not  supported  by  the  chroni- 
clers. It  is  true  that  both  at  Wareham  and  Exe- 
ter the  Pagans  broke  new  ground,  and  secured  their 
positions,  from  which,  no  doubt,  they  did  sore  dam- 
age in  the  neighboring  districts ;  but  we  can  trace 
in  these  years  none  of  the  old  ostentatious  daring 
and  thirst  for  battle  with  Alfred.  Wlienever  he 
appears  the  pirate  bands  draw  back  at  once  into 
their  strongholds,  and,  exhausted  as  great  part  of 
"Wessex  must  have  been  by  the  constant  strain,  the 
West  Saxons  show  no  signs  yet  of  falling  from  their 
gallant  king.  If  he  can  no  longer  collect  in  a  week 
such  an  army  as  fought  at  Ashdown,  he  can  still, 
without  much  delay,  bring  to  his  side  a  sufficient 
force  to  hem  the  Pagans  in  and  keep  them  behind 
their  ramparts. 

But  the  nature  of  the  service  was  telling  sadly 
on  the  resources  of  the  kingdom  south  of  the 
Thames.  To  the  Saxons  there  came  no  new  levies, 
while  from  the  north  and  east  of  England,  as  well 
as  from  over  the  sea,  Guthrum  was  ever  drawing  to 
his  standard  wandering  bands  of  sturdy  Northmen. 
The  most  important  of  these  reinforcements  came 
to  him  from  an  unexpected  quarter  this  autumn. 
"We  have  not  heard  for  some  years  of  Hubba,  the 
brother  of  Hinguar,  the  younger  of  the  two  vikings 
who  planned  and  led  the  first  great  invasion  in 
868.  Perhaps  he  may  have  resented  the  arrival 
of  Guthrum  and  other  kings  in  the  following  vears, 


THE  SECOND  WAVE.  99 

to  whom  he  had  to  give  place.  AMiatever  may 
have  been  the  cause,  he  seems  to  have  gone  off  on 
his  own  account,  carrying  with  him  the  famous 
raven  standard,  to  do  liis  appointed  work  in  these 
years  on  other  coasts  under  its  ominous  shade. 

This  "war-flag  which  they  call  raven"  was  a 
sacred  object  to  the  Northmen.  "When  Hinguar 
and  Hubba  had  heard  of  the  death  of  tlieir  father, 
Eegner  Lodbrog,  and  had  resolved  to  avenge  him, 
while  they  were  calling  together  their  followers, 
their  three  sisters  in  one  day  wove  for  them  this 
war-flag,  in  the  midst  of  which  was  portrayed  the 
figure  of  a  raven.  Whenever  the  flag  went  before 
them  into  battle,  if  they  were  to  win  the  day  the 
sacred  raven  would  rouse  itself  and  stretch  its 
wings,  but  if  defeat  awaited  them  the  flag  would 
hang  round  its  staff,  and  the  bird  remain  motion- 
less. This  wonder  had  been  proved  in  many  a 
fight,  so  the  wild  Pagans  who  fouglit  under  the 
standard  of  Regner's  children  believed.  It  was  a 
power  in  itself,  and  Hubba  and  a  strong  fleet  were 
with  it. 

They  had  appeared  in  the  Bristol  Channel  in  this 
autumn  of  877,  and  had  ruthlessly  slaughtered  and 
spoiled  the  people  of  South  Wales.  Here  they  pro- 
pose to  winter ;  but,  as  the  country  is  wild  moun- 
tain for  the  most  part.,  and  the  people  very  poor, 
they  will  remain  no  longer  than  they  can  help. 
Already  a  large  part  of  the  army  about  Gloster  are 
getting  restle.ss.  The  story  of  their  march  from 
Devonshire,  through  rich  districts  of  Wessex  yet 
unplundered,  goes  round  amongst  the  new-coimers. 
Guthrum  has  no  po^\•er,  probably  no  will,  to  keep 


100  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

them  to  their  oaths.  In  the  early  winter  a  joint 
attack  is  planned  by  him  and  Hubba  on  the  "West 
Saxon  territory.  By  Christmas  they  are  strong 
enough  to  take  the  field,  and  so  in  midwinter, 
shortly  after  Twelfth  Night,  the  camp  at  Gloster 
breaks  up,  and  the  army  "  stole  away  to  Chippen- 
ham," recrossing  the  Avon  once  more  into  Wessex, 
under  Guthrum.  The  fleet,  after  a  short  delay, 
cross  to  the  Devonshire  coast,  under  Hubba,  in 
thirty  war-ships. 

And  now  at  last  the  courage  of  the  West  Saxons 
gives  way.  The  surprise  is  complete.  Wiltshire 
is  at  the  mercy  of  the  Pagans,  who,  occupying  the 
royal  burgh  of  Chippenham  as  head-quarters,  overrun 
the  whole  district,  drive  many  of  the  inhabitants 
"  beyond  the  sea  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life," 
and  reduce  to  subjection  all  those  that  remain. 
Alfred  is  at  his  post,  but  for  the  moment  can  make 
no  head  against  them.  His  own  strong  heart  and 
trust  in  God  are  left  him,  and  with  them  and  a 
scanty  band  of  followers  he  disappears  into  the 
forest  of  Selwood,  which  then  stretched  away  from 
the  confines  of  Wiltshire  for  thirty  miles  to  the  west. 
East  Somerset,  now  one  of  the  fairest  and  richest 
of  English  counties,  was  then  for  the  most  part 
thick  wood  and  tangled  swamp;  but,  miserable  as 
the  lodging  is,  it  is  welcome  for  the  time  to  the 
King.  In  the  first  months  of  878,  Selwood  Forest 
holds  in  its  recesses  the  hope  of  England. 


ATHELNEY.  101 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

ATHELNEY. 

"  Behold  a  King  shall  reign  in  righteousness,  and  princes  shall  mle  in 
judgment.  And  a  man  shall  be  as  an  hiding-place  from  the  wind, 
and  a  covert  from  the  tempest ;  as  rivers  of  water  in  a  dry  place,  as 
the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 

AT  first  sight  it  seems  hard  to  account  for  the 
sudden  and  complete  collapse  of  the  West 
Saxon  power  in  January,  878.  In  the  campaign  of 
the  last  year  Alfred  had  been  successful  on  the 
whole,  both  by  sea  and  land.  He  had  cleared  the 
soil  of  Wessex  from  the  enemy,  and  had  reduced 
the  pagan  leaders  to  sue  humbly  for  terms,  and  to 
give  whatever  hostages  he  demanded.  Yet  three 
months  later  the  simple  crossing  the  Avon  and  tak- 
ing of  Chippenham  is  enough,  if  we  can  believe 
the  chroniclers,  to  paralyze  the  whole  kingdom,  and 
to  leave  Alfred  a  fugitive,  hiding  in  Selwood  Forest, 
with  a  mere  handful  of  followers  and  his  ovm 
family.  But  there  is  no  doubt  or  discrepancy  in 
the  accounts.  The  Saxon  Chronicle  says,  in  its  short 
clear  style,  that  the  army  stole  away  to  Chippen- 
ham during  midwinter,  after  Twelfth  Night,  and  sat 
down  there ;  "  and  many  of  the  people  they  drove 
beyond  the  sea,  and  of  the  rest  the  greater  part 
they  subdued  and  forced  to  obey  them,  except  King 
Alfred ;  and  he  witli  a  small  band  with  difficulty 
retreated  to  the  woods  and  the  fastnesses  of  the 


102        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

moors."  Asser  and  the  rest  merely  expand  this 
statement  in  one  form  or  another,  leaving  the  main 
facts  —  the  complete  success  of  the  blow,  and  the 
inability  of  Alfred  at  the  moment  to  ward  it  off, 
or  return  it,  or  recover  from  it  —  altogether  un- 
questioned. 

Some  ^vriters  have  thought  to  account  for  it  by 
transposing  a  passage  from  Brompton,  narrating  ob- 
scurely a  battle  at  Chippenham,  and  another  at  a 
place  called  Abendune,  in  both  of  which  Alfred  is 
defeated.  This  occurs  in  Brompton  in  the  year  871, 
and,  being  clearly  out  of  place  there,  has  been  seized 
on  to  help  out  the  difficulty  in  the  year  878. 

But  there  does  not  appear  to  be  the  least  ground 
for  taking  this  liberty  with  Brompton's  text,  nor 
even,  if  there  were,  is  he  a  sufficiently  sound  au- 
thority to  rely  upon  for  any  fact  which  is  not  to  be 
found  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  or  Asser.  Xor  in- 
deed is  there  need  of  any  such  explanation  when 
the  facts  come  to  be  carefully  examined. 

In  the  first  place,  this  winter  inroad  on  Chippen- 
ham was  made  at  a  time  of  year  when  even  the 
vikings  and  their  followers .  were  usually  at  rest. 
Guthrum  and  his  host  fell  upon  the  AViltshire  and 
Somersetshire  men  when  they  were  quite  unpre- 
pared, and  before  they  had  had  time  to  hide  away 
their  wives  and  children  or  any  provision  of  corn  or 
beasts.  Then  the  country  was  already  exhausted. 
The  Pagans,  it  is  true,  had  not  yet  visited  this  part  of 
AVessex,  but  the  drain  of  men  must  have  been  felt 
here,  in  the  last  eight  years,  as  well  as  farther  east 
and  south.  We  remark,  too,  that  these  West  Sax- 
ons are   the  nearest  neighbors   of   the   Mercians, 


ATHELXEY.  103 

amongst  whom  a  considerable  body  of  the  Danes 
had  been  now  settled  for  some  years.  Paganism 
was  rife  again  at  Gloster,  and  no  great  harm  seemed 
to  come  of  it.  These  pagan  settlers,  though  inso- 
lent and  overbearing,  still  lived  side  by  side  with 
the  Saxon  inhabitants;  did  not  attempt  to  drive 
them  out  or  exterminate  them  ;  left  them  some 
portion  of  their  worldly  goods.  On  the  other  hand, 
what  hope  is  there  in  fighting  against  a  foe  who  has 
nothing  to  lose  but  his  life,  whose  numbers  are  in- 
exhaustible. Might  it  not  be  better  to  make  any 
terms  with  them,  such,  for  instance,  as  our  Mercian 
brethren  have  made  ?  Tliis  young  king  of  ours 
cannot  protect  us,  has  spent  all  his  treasure  in 
former  wars,  has  little  indeed  left  but  his  name. 
Who  is  Alfred  ?  and  what  is  the  race  of  Cerdic  ? 
Rqow  ye  not  that  we  are  consumed  ? 

Here,  for  the  first  time,  in  878,  we  find  traces  of 
this  kind  of  demoralization  and  of  disloyalty  to 
their  king  and  land  on  the  part  of  a  portion  of  his 
people ;  and  the  strong  and  patient  soul  of  Alfred 
must  have  been  wrung  by  an  anguish  such  as  he 
had  not  yet  knowTi,  as  he  heard  from  his  hiding- 
place  of  this  apostasy.  Here  then  our  great  king 
touches  the  lowest  point  in  his  history.  So  far  as 
outward  circumstances  go,  humiliation  can  indeed 
hardly  go  further  than  this.  Are  we  to  believe  the 
story  that  he  had  earned  and  prepared  that  humilia- 
tion for  himself  in  those  first  few  years  of  his  reign 
between  the  autumn  of  872,  when  the  camp  at 
Reading  broke  up,  and  the  early  spring  of  876, 
when  the  pagan  fleet  appeared  off  Wareham  ?  The 
form  in  which  this  story  comes  down  to  us  is  in  it- 


104  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

self  suspicious.  It  rests  mainly  on  the  authority 
of  the  "  Life  of  St.  Neot,"  a  work  of  the  next  cen- 
tury, the  author  of  which  is  not  known ;  but  only 
thus  much  about  him,  that  he  was  a  monk  bent  on 
exalting  the  character  and  history  of  his  saint,  with- 
out much  care  at  whose  expense  this  was  to  be 
done.  The  passage  in  Asser,  apparently  confirming 
the  statement,  is  regarded  by  all  the  best  scholars  as 
spurious,  and  indeed  commences  with  a  reference  to 
the  "  Life  of  St.  Neot,"  so  that  it  could  not  possibly 
be  of  the  same  date  as  the  rest  of  Asser's  book, 
which  was  written  during  the  King's  lifetime. 
"  The  Almighty,"  so  the  anonymous  author  writes, 
"  not  only  gi^anted  to  this  glorious  king  victories 
over  his  enemies,  but  also  allowed  him  to  be  har- 
assed by  them,  and  weighed  down  by  misfortunes 
and  by  the  low  estate  of  his  followers,  to  the  end 
that  he  might  learn  that  there  is  one  Lord  of  all 
things  to  whom  every  knee  must  bow,  and  in  whose 
hand  are  the  hearts  of  kings  ;  who  puts  down  the 
mighty  from  their  seat,  and  exalts  them  of  low  de- 
gree ;  who  suffers  His  servants,  when  they  are  at 
the  height  of  good  fortune,  to  be  touched  by  the 
rod  of  adversity,  that  in  their  humility  they  may 
not  despair  of  God's  mercy,  and  in  their  prosperity 
may  not  boast  of  their  honors,  but  may  also  know 
to  whom  they  owe  all  they  have.  One  may  there- 
fore believe  tliat  these  misfortunes  were  brought  on 
the  King  because  in  tlie  beginning  of  his  reign, 
when  he  was  a  youth  and  swayed  by  a  youth's  im- 
pulses, he  would  not  listen  to  the  petitions  which 
his  subjects  made  to  him  for  help  in  their  neces- 
sities, or  for  relief  from  their  oppressors,  but  used  to 


ATHELXEY.  105 

drive  them  from  him  and  pay  no  heed  to  their  re- 
quests. This  conduct  gave  much  pain  to  the  holy 
man  St.  Neot,  who  was  his  relation,  and  often  fore- 
told to  him  in  tlie  spirit  of  propliecy  that  he  would 
suffer  great  adversity  on  this  account.  But  Alfred 
neither  attended  to  the  proof  of  the  man  of  God, 
nor  listened  to  his  soothsaying.  Wherefore,  seeing 
that  a  man's  sins  must  be  punished,  either  in  this 
world  or  the  next,  the  true  and  righteous  Judge 
willed  that  his  sin  should  not  go  unpunished  in  this 
world,  to  the  end  that  he  might  spare  him  in  the 
world  to  come.  For  this  cause,  therefore.  King  Al- 
fred often  fell  into  such  great  misery  that  some- 
times none  of  his  subjects  knew  where  he  was  or 
what  had  become  of  him." 

So  writes  the  monkish  historian,  upon  whose  state- 
ment one  remarks,  that  in  the  only  place  where  it 
can  be  tested  it  is  not  accurate.  The  one  occasion 
on  which  Alfred  fell  into  such  misery  that  his  sub- 
jects did  not  know  where  he  was,  was  in  this  Janu- 
ary of  878.  We  know  that  for  many  years  before 
his  accession  he  was  anxiously  bent  on  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  in  disciplining  himself  for  his  work 
in  life,  whatever  it  might  be.  Patience,  humility, 
and  utter  forgetfulness  of  self,  the  true  royal  quali- 
ties, shine  out  through  every  word  and  act  of  his 
life  wherever  we  can  get  at  them.  Indeed,  I  think 
no  one  can  be  familiar  with  tlie  autlientic  records  of 
his  words  and  works  and  believe  that  he  could  ever 
have  alienated  his  peoi)le  by  arrogance,  or  impatience, 
or  superciliousness.  His  would  seem  to  be  rather 
one  of  those  rare  natures  which  march  through  life 
without  haste  and  without  faltering;  bearing  all 
5* 


106  hll'E    OF    ALFKEU    THE    GREAT. 

things,  hoping  all  things,  enduring  all  things,  but 
never  resting  before  the  evil  which  is  going  on  all 
round  him,  and  of  which  he  is  conscious  in  his  own 
soul.  He  may  indeed  have  alienated  some  nobles 
and  official  persons  in  his  kingdom,  by  curbing 
vigorously,  and  at  once,  the  powers  of  the  alder- 
men and  reeves.  Indeed,  it  is  said,  that  in  one  of 
those  years  he  hanged  as  many  as  forty-four  reeves 
for  unjust  judgments,  even  for  stretching  the  King's 
prerogative  against  suitors.  No  doubt,  also,  his  de- 
mands on  the  people  generally  for  military  service, 
the  building  of  ships,  and  restoring  of  fortified  places, 
were  burdensome,  and  may  have  caused  some  dis- 
content. But  there  is  no  trustworthy  evidence,  that 
I  have  been  able  to  find,  of  any  disaffection,  nor 
does  it  need  the  suggestion  of  any  such  cause  to 
account  for  the  events  of  the  winter  of  878. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  monkish  tradition  of  Al- 
fred's arrogant  youth  and  its  results.  It  cannot  be 
passed  over,  but  must  be  read  by  the  light  of  his 
later  life  and  work,  as  we  have  it  in  minute  detail 

The  King  then  disappears  in  January,  878,  from 
the  eyes  of  Saxon  and  Northmen,  and  we  must  fol- 
low him,  by  such  light  as  tradition  throws  upon 
these  months,  into  the  thickets  and  marshes  of 
Selwood.  It  is  at  this  point,  as  is  natural  enough, 
that  romance  has  been  most  busy,  and  it  has  be- 
come impossible  to  disentangle  the  actual  facts  from 
monkish  legend  and  Saxon  ballad.  In  happier  times 
Alfred  was  in  the  habit  himself  of  talking  over  the 
events  of  his  Avandering  life  pleasantly  with  his 
courtiers,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the 
foundation  of  most  of  the  stories  still  current  rests 


ATHELNEY.  107 

on   those  conversations  of  the   tnith-loving  King, 
noted  down  by  Bishop  Asser  and  others. 

The  best  known  of  these  is,  of  course,  the  story 
of  tlie  cakes.  In  the  depths  of  the  Saxon  forests 
there  were  always  a  few  neat-lierds  and  swine- 
herds, scattered  up  and  down,  living  in  rough  huts 
enough,  we  may  be  sure,  and  occupied  with  the  care 
of  the  cattk  and  herds  of  their  masters.  Amongst 
these  in  Selwood  was  a  neat-herd  of  the  King,  a 
faithful  man,  to  whom  the  secret  of  Alfred's  dis- 
guise was  intrusted,  and  who  kept  it  even  from  his 
wife.  To  this  man's  hut  the  King  came  one  day 
alone,  -and,  sitting  himself  down  by  the  burning 
logs  on  the  heartli,  began  mending  his  bows  and 
arrows.  The  neat-herd's  wife  liad  just  finished  her 
baking,  and,  having  other  liousehold  matters  to  at- 
tend to,  confided  her  loaves  to  the  King,  a  poor  tired- 
looking  body,  who  might  be  glad  of  the  warmth,  and 
could  make  himself  useful  by  turning  the  batch,  and 
so  earn  his  share  while  she  got  on  with  other  busi- 
ness. But  Alfred  worked  away  at  his  weapons, 
thinking  of  anything  but  the  good  housewife's  batch 
of  loaves,  which  in  due  course  were  not  only  done, 
but  rapidly  burning  to  a  cinder.  At  this  moment 
the  neat-herd's  wife  comes  back,  and,  flying  to  the 
hearth  to  rescue  the  bread,  cries  out,  "  D'rat  the 
man !  ne\er  to  turn  the  loaves  when  you  see  them 
burning.  I'ze  warrant  you  ready  enough  to  eat 
them  when  they  're  done."  But  besides  the  King's 
faithful  neat-herd,  whose  name  is  not  preserved, 
there  are  other  churls  in  the  forest,  who  must  be 
Alfred's  comrades  just  now  if  he  will  have  any. 
And  even  here  he  has  an  eye  for  a  good  man,  and 


108  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

will  lose  no  opportunity  to  lielp  one  to  the  best  of 
his  power.  Such  a  one  he  finds  in  a  certain  swine- 
herd called  Denewulf,  whom  he  gets  to  know,  a 
thoughtful  Saxon  man,  minding  his  charge  there 
in  the  oak  woods.  The  rough  churl,  or  thrall,  we 
know  not  which,  has  great  capacity,  as  Alfred  soon 
finds  out,  and  desire  to  learn.  So  the  King  goes  to 
work  upon  Denewulf  under  the  oak-trees,  when  the 
swine  will  let  him,  and  is  well  satisfied  with  the  re- 
sults of  his  teaching  and  the  progress  of  his  pupil, 
as  will  appear  in  the  sequel. 

But  in  those  miserable  days  the  commonest  neces- 
saries of  life  were  hard  enough  to  come  b\»for  the 
King  and  his  few  companions,  and  for  his  wife  and 
family,  who  soon  joined  him  in  the  forest,  even  if 
they  were  not  with  him  from  the  first.  The  poor 
foresters  cannot  maintain  them,  nor  are  this  band 
of  exiles  the  men  to  live  on  the  poor.  So  Alfred 
and  his  comrades  are  soon  out  foraging  on  the 
borders  of  the  forest,  and  getting  what  subsistence 
they  can  from  the  Pagans,  or  from  the  Christians 
who  had  submitted  to  their  yoke.  So  we  may 
imagine  them  dragging  on  life  till  near  Easter,  when 
a  gleam  of  good  news  comes  up  from  the  west,  to 
gladden  the  hearts  and  strengthen  the  arms  of  these 
poor  men  in  the  depths  of  Selwood. 

Soon  after  Guthrum  and  the  main  body  of  the 
Pagans  moved  from  Gloster,  southwards,  the  Viking 
Hubba,  as  had  been  agreed,  sailed  with  thirtj'^  ships 
of  war  from  his  winter  quarters  on  the  South  Welsh 
coast,  and  landed  in  Devon.  The  news  of  the 
catastrophe  at  Chippenham,  and  of  the  disappearance 
of  the  King,  was  no  doubt  already  known  in  the 


ATHELNEY.  109 

■west ;  and  in  the  face  of  it  Odda  the  alderman  cannot 
gather  strength  to  meet  the  Pagan  in  the  open  field. 
But  he  is  a  brave  and  true  man,  and  will  make  no 
terms  with  the  spoilers  ;  so,  with  other  faithful  thegns 
of  King  Alfred  and  their  followers,  he  throws  him- 
self into  a  castle  or  fort  called  Cynwith,  or  Cynnit, 
there  to  abide  whatever  issue  of  this  business  God 
shall  send  them.  Hubba,  witli  the  war-flag  Eaven, 
and  a  host  laden  with  the  spoil  of  rich  Devon  vales, 
appear  in  due  course  before  the  place.  It  is  not 
strong  naturally,  and  has  only  "  walls  in  our  own 
fashion,"  meaning  probably  rough  earthworks.  But 
there  are  resolute  men  behind  them,  and  on  the 
whole  Hubba  declines  the  assault,  and  sits  do^vn 
before  the  place.  There  is  no  spring  of  water,  he 
hears,  within  the  Saxon  lines,  and  they  are  otherwise 
wholly  unprepared  for  a  siege.  A  few  days  will  no 
doubt  settle  the  matter,  and  the  sword  or  slavery  will 
be  the  portion  of  Odda  and  the  rest  of  Alfred's  men ; 
meantime  there  is  spoil  enough  in  the  camp  from 
Devonsliire  homesteads,  which  brave  men  can  revel 
in  round  the  war-flag  Raven,  while  they  watch  the 
Saxon  ramparts.  Odda,  however,  has  quite  other 
views  than  death  from  thirst,  or  surrender.  Before 
any  stress  comes,  early  one  morning,  he  and  his 
whole  force  sally  out  over  their  earthworks,  and  from 
the  first  "  cut  down  the  Pagans  in  great  numbers  " ; 
840  warriors  (some  say  1,200),  with  Hubba  liimself, 
are  slain  before  Cynnit  fort ;  the  rest,  few  in  number, 
escape  to  their  ships.  The  war-flag  Eaven  is  left  in 
the  hands  of  Odda  and  the  men  of  Devon. 

This  is  the  news  which  conies  to  Alfred,  Etlielnoth 
the  alderman  of  Somerset,  Denewulf  the  swine-herd, 


110  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

and  the  rest  of  the  Selwoocl  Forest  group,  some  time 
before  Easter.  These  men  of  Devonshire,  it  seems, 
are  still  stanch,  and  ready  to  peril  their  lives  against 
the  Pagan.  No  doubt  up  and  down  Wessex,  thrashed 
and  trodden  out  as  the  nation  is  by  this  time,  there 
are  other  good  men  and  true,  who  will  neither  cross 
the  sea  or  the  Welsh  marches,  nor  make  terms  with 
the  Pagan ;  some  sprinkling  of  men  who  will  yet 
set  life  at  stake,  for  faith  in  Christ  and  love  of 
England.  If  these  can  only  be  rallied,  who  can  say 
what  may  follow  ?  So,  in  the  lengthening  days  of 
spring,  council  is  held  in  Selwood,  and  there  will 
have  been  Easter  services  in  some  chapel,  or  her- 
mitage, in  the  forest,  or,  at  any  rate,  in  some  quiet 
glade.  The  "  day  of  days  "  will  surely  have  had 
its  voice  of  hope  for  this  poor  remnant.  Christ  is 
risen  and  reigns ;  and  it  is  not  in  these  heatlien 
Danes,  or  in  all  the  Northmen  who  ever  sailed  across 
the  sea,  to  put  back  his  kingdom,  or  enslave  those 
whom  he  has  freed. 

The  result  is,  that,  far  away  from  the  eastern 
boundary  of  the  forest,  on  a  rising  ground  —  hill  it 
can  scarcely  be  called — surrounded  by  dangerous 
marshes  formed  by  the  little  rivers  Thone  and  Parret, 
fordable  only  in  summer,  and  even  then  dangerous 
to  all  who  have  not  the  secret,  a  small  fortified 
camp  is  thrown  up  under  Alfred's  eye,  by  Ethelnoth 
and  the  Somersetshire  men,  where  he  can  once  again 
raise  his  standard.  The  spot  has  been  chosen  by  the 
King  with  the  utmost  care,  for  it  is  his  last  throw.  He 
names  it  the  Etheling's  eig  or  island,  "  Athelney." 
Probably  his  young  son,  the  Etheling  of  England,  is 
there  amongst  the  first,  \vith  his  mother  and  his  grand- 


ATHELNEY.  Ill 

mother  Eatlbnrgha,  tlie  widow  of  Ethelred  Mucil,  the 
venerable  lady  whom  Asser  saw  in  later  years,  and 
who  has  now  no  country  but  her  daughter's.  There 
are,  as  has  been  reckoned,  some  two  acres  of  hard 
ground  on  tlie  island,  and  around  vast  brakes  of 
alder-bush,  full  of  deer  and  other  game. 

Here  the  Somersetshire  men  can  keep  up  constant 
communication  with  him,  and  a  small  army  grows 
together.  They  are  soon  strong  enough  to  make 
forays  into  the  open  country,  and  in  many  skirmishes 
they  cut  off  parties  of  the  Pagans,  and  supplies. 
"For,  even  when  overthrown  and  cast  down,"  says 
Malmesbury,  "  Alfred  had  always  to  be  fought  with  ; 
so  then,  when  one  would  esteem  him  altogether  worn 
down  and  broken,  like  a  snake  slipping  from  the  hand 
of  him  who  would  grasp  it,  lie  would  suddenly  flash 
out  again  from  his  hiding-places,  rising  up  to  smite 
his  foes  in  the  height  of  their  insolent  confidence, 
and  never  more  hard  to  beat  than  after  a  flight." 

But  it  was  still  a  trying  life  at  Athelney.  Fol- 
lowers came  in  slowly,  and  provender  and  supplies 
of  all  kinds  are  hard  to  wring  from  the  Pagan,  and 
harder  still  to  take  from  Christian  men.  One  day, 
while  it  was  yet  so  cold  that  the  water  was  still 
frozen,  the  King's  people  had  gone  out  "  to  get  them 
fish  or  fowl,  or  some  such  purveyance  as  they  sus- 
tained themselves  withal."  No  one  was  left  in  the 
royal  hut  for  the  moment  but  himself,  and  his  mother- 
in-law  Eadburgha.  The  King  (after  his  constant 
wont  whensoever  he  had  opportunity)  was  reading 
from  the  Psalms  of  David,  out  of  the  Manual  which 
he  carried  always  in  his  bosom.  At  this  moment 
a  poor  man  appeared  at  the  door  and  begged  for 


112  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

a  morsel  of  bread  "  for  Christ  his  sake."  Wliere- 
upon  the  King,  receiving  the  stranger  as  a  brother, 
called  to  his  mother-in-law  to  give  him  to  eat. 
Eadbiirgha  replied  that  tliere  was  but  one  loaf  in 
their  store,  and  a  little  wine  in  a  pitcher,  a  provision 
wholly  insufficient  for  his  own  family  and  people. 
But  the  King  bade  her  nevertheless  to  give  the 
stranger  part  of  the  last  loaf,  which  she  accordingly 
did.  But  when  he  had  been  served  the  stranger 
was  no  more  seen,  and  tlie  loaf  remained  M'hole, 
and  the  pitcher  full  to  the  brim.  Alfred,  meantime, 
had  turned  to  his  reading,  over  which  he  fell  asleep, 
and  dreamt  tliat  St.  Cuthbert  of  Liudisfarne  stood 
by  him,  and  told  liim  it  was  he  who  liad  been  his 
guest,  and  that  God  had  seen  his  afflictions  and 
those  of  his  people,  which  were  now  about  to  end, 
in  token  whereof  his  people  would  return  that  day 
from  their  expedition  with  a  great  take  of  fisli. 
The  King  awaking,  and  being  much  impressed  with 
his  dream,  called  to  his  mother-in-law  and  recounted 
it  to  her,  who  thereupon  assured  him  that  she  too 
had  been  overcome  with  sleep,  and  had  had  the 
same  dream.  And  whUe  they  yet  talked  together 
on  what  had  happened  so  strangely  to  them,  their 
servants  come  in,  bringing  fish  enough,  as  it  seemed 
to  them,  to  have  fed  an  army. 

The  monkish  legend  goes  on  to  tell  that  on  the 
next  morning  the  King  crossed  to  the  mainland  in 
a  boat,  and  wound  his  horn  thrice,  which  drew  to 
him  before  noon  500  men.  What  we  may  think 
of  the  story  and  the  dream,  as  Sir  John  Spelman 
says,  "  is  not  here  very  much  material,"  seeing  that 
whether  we  deem  it  natural  or  supernatural,  "  the 


ATHELNEY.  113 

one  as  well  as  the  other  serves  at  God's  appoint- 
ment, by  raising  or  dejecting  of  the  mind  with 
liopes  or  feare,  to  lead  man  to  the  resolution  of 
those  things  whereof  He  has  before  ordained  the 
event." 

Alfred,  we  may  be  sure,  was  ready  to  accept  and 
be  tlianklul  for  any  help,  let  it  come  from  whence  it 
might,  and  soon  after  Easter  it  was  becoming  clear 
that  the  time  is  at  hand  for  more  than  skirmishing 
expeditions.  Through  all  the  neighboring  counties 
w^ord  is  spreading  that  their  hero  king  is  alive,  and 
on  foot  again,  and  that  there  will  be  another  chance 
for  brave  men  erelong  of  meeting  once  more  these 
scourges  of  the  land,  under  his  leading. 

A  popular  legend  is  found  in  the  later  chroniclers 
which  relates  that  at  this  crisis  of  his  fortunes, 
Alfred,  not  daring  to  rely  on  any  evidence  but  that 
of  his  own  senses  as  to  the  numbers,  disposition, 
and  discipline  of  the  pagan  army,  assumed  the  garb 
of  a  minstrel,  and  with  one  attendant  visited  the 
camp  of  Guthrum.  Here  he  stayed,  "  showing 
tricks  and  making  sport,"  until  he  had  penetrated 
to  the  King's  tents,  and  learned  all  that  he  wished 
to  know.  After  satisfying  himself  as  to  the  chances 
of  a  sudden  attack,  he  returns  to  Athelney,  and,  the 
time  having  come  for  a  great  effort,  if  his  people 
will  but  make  it,  sends  round  messengers  to  the 
aldermen  and  king's  thegns  of  neighboring  shires, 
giving  them  a  tryst  for  the  seventh  week  after 
Easter,  the  second  week  in  May. 


114  LIFE   Ui"   ALi'liJiiJ   Iil£   GliEAl. 


CHAPTEE    X. 

ETILVXDUNE. 

"  Unto  whom  Jndas  answered,  It  is  no  hard  matter  for  many  to  he 
shut  up  in  tlie  hands  of  a  few:  and  with  the  God  of  heaven  it  is 
all  one  to  deliver  with  a  great  multitude  or  a  small  company. 

"  For  the  victory  of  battle  standeth  not  in  the  multitude  of  an  host, 
but  strength  cometh  from  heaven. 

"  They  come  against  us  in  much  pride  and  iniquity,  to  destroy  us, 
and  our  wives  and  children,  and  to  spoil  us. 

••  But  we  fight  for  our  lives  and  our  laws." 

ON  or  about  the  12th  of  May,  878,  King  Alfred 
left  his  island  in  the  great  wood,  and  his  wife 
and  children  and  such  household  gods  as  he  had 
gathered  round  him  there,  and  came  publicly  forth 
amongst  his  people  once  more,  riding  to  Egbert's 
Stone  (probably  Brixton),  on  the  east  of  Selwood,  a 
distance  of  26  miles.  Here  met  him  the  men  of 
the  neighboring  shires,  —  Odda,  no  doubt,  with  his 
men  of  Devonshire,  full  of  courage  and  hope  after 
their  recent  triumph ;  the  men  of  Somersetshire, 
under  their  brave  and  faithful  Alderman  Ethelnoth ; 
and  the  men  of  Wilts  and  Hants,  such  of  them  at 
least  as  had  not  fled  the  country  or  made  submis- 
sion to  the  enemy.  "And  when  they  saw  their 
king  alive  after  such  great  tribulation,  they  received 
him,  as  he  merited,  with  joy  and  acclamation."  The 
gathering  had  been  so  carefully  planned  by  Alfred 
and  the  nobles  who  had  been  in  conference  or  cor- 
respondence with  him  at  Athelney,  that  the  Saxon 


ETHAXDUXE.  115 

host  was  oi^gaiiizeJ,  and  ready  for  immediate  action, 
on  tlie  very  day  of  muster.  "Wliether  Alfred  had 
been  his  own  spy  we  cannot  tell,  but  it  is  plain  that 
he  knew  well  what  was  passing  in  the  pagan  camp, 
and  how  necessary  swiftness  and  secrecy  were  to 
the  success  of  his  attack. 

Local  traditions  cannot  be  much  relied  upon  for 
events  which  took  place  a  thousand  years  ago,  but 
where  there  is  clearly  nothing  improbable  in  them 
they  are  at  least  worth  mentioning.  We  may  note, 
then,  that  according  to  Somersetshire  tradition,  first 
collected  by  Dr.  Giles  (himself  a  Somersetshire  man, 
and  one  who,  besides  his  Life  of  Alfred  and  other 
excellent  works  bearing  on  the  time,  is  the  author 
of  the  "  Harmony  of  the  Chroniclers,"  published  by 
the  Alfred  Committee  in  1852),  the  signal  for  the 
actual  gathering  of  the  West  Saxons  at  Egbert's 
Stone  was  given  by  a  beacon  lighted  on  the  top  of 
Stourton  Hill,  where  Alfred's  Tower  now  stands. 
Such  a  beacon  would  be  hidden  from  the  Danes,  who 
must  have  been  encamped  about  Westbury,  by  the 
range  of  the  Wiltshire  hills,  while  it  would  be  visi- 
ble to  the  west  over  the  low  country  towards  the  Bris- 
tol Channel,  and  to  the  south  far  into  Dorsetshire. 

Not  an  hour  was  lost  by  Alfred  at  the  place  of 
muster.  The  bands  which  came  together  there 
were  composed  of  men  well  used  to  arms,  each 
band  under  its  owti  alderman  or  reeve.  The  small 
army  he  had  himself  been  disciplining  at  Athel- 
ney,  and  training  in  skirmishes  during  the  last  few 
months,  would  form  a  reliable  centre  on  which  the 
rest  would  have  to  form  as  best  they  could.  So 
after  one  day's  halt  he  breaks  up  his  camp  at  Eg- 


116  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

bert's  Stone,  and  marches  to  ^Eglea,  now  called  Clay- 
Hill,  an  important  height,  commanding  the  vale  to 
the  north  of  Westbuiy,  which  the  Danish  army  were 
now  occupying.  The  day's  march  of  the  army 
would  be  a  short  five  miles.  Here  the  annals 
record  that  St.  Neot,  his  kinsman,  appeared  to  him, 
and  promised  that  on  the  morrow  his  misfortunes 
would  end. 

There  are  still  traces  of  rude  earthworks  round 
the  top  of  Clay  Hill,  which  are  said  to  have  beeii 
thrown  up  by  Alfred's  army  at  this  time.  If 
there  had  been  time  for  such  a  work,  it  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  a  wise  step,  as  a  fortified  en- 
campment here  would  have  served  Alfred  in  good 
stead  in  case  of  a  reverse.  But  the  few  hours  dur- 
ing which  the  army  halted  on  Clay  Hill  would  have 
been  quite  too  short  time  for  such  an  undertaking, 
which,  moreover,  would  have  exhausted  the  troops. 
It  is  more  likely  that  the  earthworks,  which  are  of 
the  oldest  type,  similar  to  those  at  White  Horse 
Hill,  above  Ashdown,  were  there  long  before  Al- 
fred's arrival  in  May,  878.  After  resting  one  night 
on  Clay  Hill,  Alfred  led  out  his  men  in  close  order 
of  battle  against  the  pagan  host,  which  lay  at 
Ethandune.  There  has  been  much  doubt  amongst 
antiquaries  as  to  the  site  of  Ethandune,  but  Dr.  Giles 
and  others  have  at  length  established  the  claims  of 
Edington,  a  village  seven  miles  from  Clay  Hill,  on 
the  northeast,  to  be  the  spot  where  the  strength  of 
the  second  wave  of  pagan  invasion  was  utterly 
broken,  and  rolled  back  weak  and  helpless  from 
the  rock  of  the  West  Saxon  kingdom. 

Sir  John  Spelman,  relying  apparently  only  on 


ETHA-N'DUNE.  117 

the  authority  of  Nicholas  Harpesfeld's  "Ecclesias- 
tical History  of  England,"  puts  a  speech  into  Al- 
fred's mouth,  which  he  is  supposed  to  have  de- 
livered before  the  battle  of  Edington.  He  tells 
them  that  the  great  sufferings  of  the  land  had  been 
yet  far  short  of  what  their  sins  had  deserved ;  that 
God  had  only  dealt  with  them  as  a  loving  Father, 
and  was  now  about  to  succor  them,  having  already 
stricken  their  foe  with  fear  and  astonishment,  and 
given  him,  on  the  other  hand,  much  encouragement 
by  drean)s  and  otherwise  ;  that  they  had  to  do  with 
pirates  and  robbers,  who  had  broken  faith  with  them 
over  and  over  again  ;  and  the  issue  they  had  to  try 
that  day  was,  whether  Christ's  faith,  or  heathenism, 
was  henceforth  to  be  established  in  England. 

There  is  no  trace  of  any  such  speech  in  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  or  Asser,  and  the  one  reported  does  not 
ring  like  that  of  Judas  Maccabeus.  That  Alfred's 
soul  was  on  fire  that  morning,  on  finding  himself 
once  more  at  the  head  of  a  force  he  could  rely  on, 
und  before  the  enemy  he  had  met  so  often,  we  may 
be  sure  enough,  but  shall  never  know  how  the  fire 
kindled  into  speech,  if  indeed  it  did  so  at  all.  In 
such  supreme  moments  many  of  the  strongest  men 
have  no  word  to  say,  —  keep  all  their  heat  within. 

Xor  have  we  any  clew  to  the  numbers  who  fought 
on  either  side  at  Ethandune,  or  indeed  in  any  of 
Alfred's  battles.  In  the  Chronicles  there  are  only 
a  few  vague  and  general  statements,  from  which 
little  can  be  gathered.  The  most  precise  of  them 
is  that  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  which  gives  840  as 
the  number  of  men  who  were  slain,  as  we  heard, 
with   Hubba,   before   Cynuit   fort,   in   Devonshire, 


118  I-IFK    t»r    ALl-KKD    TIIK    GHKAT. 

earlier  iu  this  same  year.  Such  a  death-roll,  in  an 
action  in  which  only  a  small  detachment  of  the 
pagan  army  was  engaged,  would  lead  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  armies  weie  far  larger  than  one 
would  expect.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  dithcult  to 
imagine  how  any  large  bodies  of  men  could  find 
subsistence  in  a  small  country,  whicli  was  the  seat 
of  so  devastating  a  war,  and  in  which  so  much 
land  remained  still  unreclaimed.  But  whatever  the 
power  of  either  side  amonnted  to,  we  may  be  quite 
sure  that  it  had  been  exerted  to  the  utmost  to  bring 
as  large  a  force  as  possible  into  line  at  Ethan- 
dune. 

Guthrum  fought  to  protect  Chippenham,  his  base 
of  operations,  some  sixteen  miles  in  his  rear,  and  all 
the  accumulated  plunder  of  the  busy  months  which 
had  passed  since  Twelfth  Night ;  and  it  is  clear  that 
his  men  behaved  with  the  most  desperate  gallantry. 
Tlie  fight  began  at  noon  (one  chronicler  says  at  sun- 
rise, but  the  distance  makes  this  iinpossible  unless 
Alfred  marched  in  the  night),  and  lasted  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  day.  Warned  by  many  pre- 
vious disasters,  the  Saxons  never  broke  their  close 
order,  and  so,  tliough  greatly  outnumbered,  hurled 
back  again  and  again  the  onslaughts  of  the  North- 
men. At  last  Alfred  and  his  Saxons  prevailed,  and 
smote  his  pagan  foes  with  a  very  great  slaughter, 
and  pursued  them  up  to  their  fortified  camp  on 
Bratton  Hill  or  Edge,  into  which  the  great  body  of 
the  fugitives  threw  themselves.  All  who  were  left 
outside  were  slain,  and  the  great  spoil  was  all  re- 
covered. The  camp  may  still  be  seen,  called  Brat- 
ton Castle,  with  its  double  ditches  and  deep  trenches, 


ETILA^DUNE.  119 

aud  Lan-ow  in  the  midst  sixty  yards  long,  and  its 
two  entrances  guarded  by  mounds.  It  contains 
more  than  twenty  aci'es,  and  commands  the  whole 
country  side.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
camp,  and  not  Chippenham,  which  is  sixteen  miles 
away,  was  the  last  refuge  of  Guthrum  and  the  great 
Xortheru  army  on  Saxon  soil. 

So,  in  three  days  from  the  breaking  up  of  his 
little  camp  at  Athelney,  Alfred  was  once  more  king 
of  all  England  south  of  tlie  Thames  ;  for  this  army 
of  Pagans  shut  up  within  their  earthworks  on 
Bmtton  Edge  are  little  better  than  a  broken  and 
disorderly  rabble,  with  no  supplies  and  no  chance 
of  succor  from  any  quarter.  Xevertheless  he  will 
make  sure  of  them,  and  above  all  will  guard  jealous- 
ly against  any  such  mishap  as  that  of  876,  when 
they  stole  out  of  Wareham,  murdered  the  horse- 
men he  had  left  to  watch  them,  and  got  away  to 
Exeter.  So  Bratton  Camp  is  strictly  besieged  by 
Alfred  with  his  whole  power. 

Guthrum,  the  destroyer,  and  now  the  King,  of 
East  Anglia,  the  strongest  and  ablest  of  all  the 
Northmen  who  had  ever  landed  in  England,  is  now 
at  last  fairly  in  Alfred's  power.  At  Reading,  Ware- 
liam,  Exeter,  he  liad  always  held  a  foi'tified  camp, 
on  a  river  easily  navigable  by  the  Danish  war-ships, 
where  he  miglit  look  for  speedy  succor,  or  whence  at 
the  woi-st  he  miglit  hope  to  escape  to  the  sea.  But 
now  he  with  the  remains  of  his  army  are  shut  up 
in  an  inland  fort  with  no  ships  on  the  Avon,  the 
nearest  river,  even  if  they  could  cut  their  way  out 
and  reach  it,  and  no  hopes  of  reinforcements  over 
land.     Halfdene  is  the  nearest  vikinir  who  mijxht  be 


120  LIFE   OF    ALFKEb   THE   (.ItEAT. 

called  to  the  rescue,  and  he,  in  Northunibria,  is  far  too 
distant.  It  is  a  matter  of  a  few  days  only,  for  food 
runs  short  at  once  in  the  besieged  camp.  In  former 
years,  or  against  any  other  enemy,  Guthmm  would 
probably  have  preferred  to  sally  out,  and  cut  his 
way  through  the  Saxon  lines,  or  die  sword  in  hand 
as  a  son  of  Odin  should.  Whether  it  were  that  the 
wild  spirit  in  him  is  thoroughly  broken  for  the  time 
by  the  unexpected  defeat  at  Ethandune,  or  that  long 
residence  in  a  Christian  land  and  contact  with  Chris- 
tian subjects  have  shaken  his  faith  in  his  own  gods, 
or  that  he  has  learnt  to  measure  and  appreciate  the 
strength  and  nobleness  of  the  man  he  had  so  often 
deceived,  at  any  rate  for  the  time  Guthrum  is  sub- 
dued. At  the  end  of  fourteen  days  he  sends  to  Al- 
fred, suing  humbly  for  terms  of  any  kind  ;  offering 
on  the  part  of  the  army  as  many  hostages  as  may 
be  required,  without  asking  for  any  in  return  ;  once 
again  giving  solemn  pledges  to  quit  Wessex  for 
good  ;  and,  above  all,  declaring  his  own  readiness  to 
receive  baptismu  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  last 
proposal,  we  may  doubt  Mhether  even  Alfred  Mould 
have  allowed  the  ruthless  foes  with  whom  lie  and 
his  people  had  fought  so  often,  and  with  such  vary- 
ing success,  to  escape  now.  Over  and  over  again 
they  had  sworn  to  him,  and  broken  their  oaths  the 
moment  it  suited  their  purpose  ;  had  given  hostages, 
and  left  them  to  their  fate.  In  all  English  king- 
doms they  had  now  for  ten  years  been  destroying 
and  pillaging  the  houses  of  God,  and  slaying  even 
women  and  children.  They  had  driven  his  sister's 
husband  from  the  throne  of  ^Mercia,  and  had  griev- 
ously tortured  the  martjT  Edmund.      If  ever  foe 


ETUANDL'XK.  121 

deserved  no  mercy,  Guthrum  and  his  army  were 
the  men. 

When  David  smote  the  children  of  Moab,  he 
"measured  them  with  a  line,  casting  them  down 
to  the  ground  ;  even  with  two  lines  measured  he 
to  put  to  death,  and  with  one  full  line  to  keep 
alive."  When  he  took  IJabbah  of  the  children  of 
Ammon,  "he  brought  forth  the  people  that  were 
therein,  and  put  them  under  saws  and  under  har- 
rows of  iron  and  under  axes  of  iron,  and  made 
them  pass  through  the  brick-kiln."  That  was  the 
old  Hebrew  method,  even  under  King  David,  and 
in  the  ninth  century  Christianity  had  as  yet  done 
little  to  soften  the  old  lieathen  custom  of  "  woe  to 
the  vanquished."  Charlemagne's  proselytizing  cam- 
paigns had  been  as  merciless  as  Mahomet's.  But 
there  is  about  this  English  king  a  divine  patience, 
the  rarest  of  all  virtues  in  those  who  are  set  in  high 
places.  He  accepts  Guthrum's  proffered  terms  at 
once,  rejoicing  over  the  chance  of  adding  these 
fierce  heathen  warriors  to  the  Church  of  his  Mas- 
ter, by  an  act  of  mercy  which  even  tliey  must  feel. 
And  so  the  remnant  of  the  army  are  allowed  to 
marcli  out  of  their  fortified  camp,  and  to  recross 
the  Avon  into  Mercia,  not  quite  five  months  after 
the  day  of  their  winter  attack,  and  the  seizing  of 
Chippenham.  The  Northern  army  went  away  to 
Cirencester,  where  they  stayed  over  the  winter,  and 
then  returning  into  East  Anglia  settled  down  there, 
and  Alfred  and  Wessex  hear  no  more  of  them. 
Never  was  triumph  more  complete  or  better  de- 
served ;  and  in  all  liistory  there  is  no  instance  of 
more  noble  use  of  victory  than  this.      The  West 


122  LIFE    UF   ALFllKD   THE    GREAT. 

Saxon  army  was  not  at  once  disbanded.  Alfred 
led  them  back  to  Athelney,  where  he  had  left  his 
wife  and  children  ;  and  while  they  are  there,  seven 
weeks  after  the  surrender,  CJuthrum,  with  thirty  of 
the  bravest  of  his  followers,  arrive  to  make  good 
their  pledge. 

The  ceremony  of  baptism  M^as  performed  at  Wed- 
more,  a  royal  residence  which  had  probably  escaj)ed 
the  fate  of  Chippenham,  and  still  contained  a  church. 
Here  Guthrum  and  his  thirty  nobles  were  sworn  in, 
the  soldiers  of  a  greater  than  Woden,  and  the  white 
linen  cloth,  the  sign  of  their  new  faith,  was  bound 
round  their  heads.  Alfred  himself  was  godfather  to 
the  viking,  giving  him  the  Christian  name  of  Athel- 
stan ;  and  the  chrism-loosing,  or  unbinding  of  the 
sacramental  cloths,  was  performed  on  the  eighth 
day  by  Ethelnoth,  the  faithful  Alderman  of  Somer- 
setshire. After  the  religious  ceremony  there  still 
remained  the  task  of  settling  the  terais  upon  which 
the  victors  and  vanquished  were  hereafter  to  live 
together  side  by  side  in  the  same  island ;  for  Al- 
fred had  the  wisdom,  even  in  his  enemy's  humili- 
ation, to  accept  the  accomplished  fact,  and  to 
acknowledge  East  Anglia  as  a  Danish  kingdom. 
The  W^itenagemot  had  been  summoned  to  Wed- 
more,  and  was  sitting  there,  and  with  their  advice 
the  treaty  was  then  made,  from  which,  according 
to  some  historians,  English  history  begins. 

We  have  still  the  text  of  the  two  documents 
wliich  together  contain  Alfred  and  Guthnmi's  peace, 
or  the  Treaty  of  Wedmore  ;  the  first  and  shorter 
being  probably  the  articles  hastily  agreed  on  before 
the  capitulation  of  tlie  Danish  army  at  Chippen- 


ETUA^DUNIC.  12o 

ham,  the  latter  the  final  terms  settled  between  Al- 
fred and  his  witan,  and  Guthnim  and  his  thirty 
nobles,  after  mature  deliberation  and  conference  at 
"NVedmore,  but  not  formally  executed  until  some 
years  later. 

The  shorter  one,  tliat  made  at  the  capitulation, 
runs  as  follows  :  — 

ALFRED   AND   GUTHRUM'S  PEACE. 

"  This  is  the  peace  that  King  Alfred,  and  King 
Guthrum,  and  the  witan  of  all  the  Englisli  nation 
and  all  the  people  that  are  in  East  Anglia,  have  all 
ordained  and  with  oaths  confirmed,  for  ^liemselves 
and  tlieir  descendants,  as  well  for  lx)rn  as  unborn, 
who  reck  of  God's  mercy,  or  of  ours. 

"  First,  concerning  our  land  boundaries.  These 
are  up  on  the  Thames,  and  then  up  on  tlie  Lea,  and 
along  the  Lea  unto  its  source,  then  straight  to  Bed- 
ford, tlien  up  the  Ouse  to  Watling  Street. 

"  Then  there  is  tliis  :  if  a  man  be  slain  we  reckon 
all  equally  dear,  English  and  Dane,  at  eight  half 
marks  of  pure  gold,  except  the  churl  who  dwells  on 
gavel  land  and  tlieir  leisings  ;  they  are  also  equally 
dear  at  200  shillings.  And  if  a  king's  thane  be 
accused  of  manslaughter,  if  he  desire  to  clear  him- 
self let  him  do  so  before  twelve  king's  thanes.  If 
any  man  accuse  a  man  who  is  of  less  degree  than 
king's  thane,  let  him  clear  himself  with  eleven  of 
his  equals  and  one  king's  thane.  And  so  in  every 
suit  which  may  be  for  more  than  four  mancuses ; 
and  if  he  dare  not,  let  him  pay  for  it  threefold  as  it 
may  be  valued. 


124  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THK   GHEAT. 

Of  Warrantors. 

"And  that  every  man  know  his  warrantor,  for 
men,  and  for  horses,  and  for  oxen. 

"  And  we  all  ordained,  on  that  day  that  the  oaths 
were  sworn,  that  neither  bondman  nor  freeman 
might  go  to  the  army  without  leave,  nor  any  of 
them  to  us.  But  if  it  happen  that  any  of  them 
from  necessity  will  have  traffic  with  us,  or  we  with 
them,  for  cattle  or  goods,  that  is  to  be  allowed  on 
this  wise :  that  hostages  be  given  in  pledge  of  peace, 
and  as  evidence  whereby  it  may  be  known  that  the 
party  has  a  clean  book." 

By  the  treaty  Alfred  is  thus  established  as  king 
of  the  whole  of  England  south  of  the  Thames ;  of 
all  the  old  kingdom  of  Essex  south  of  the  Lea,  in- 
cluding London,  Hertford,  and  St.  Albans  ;  of  the 
whole  of  the  great  kingdom  of  Mercia,  which  lay 
to  the  west  of  Watling  Street,  and  of  so  much  to  tlie 
east  as  lay  south  of  the  Ouse.  That  he  should  have 
regained  so  much  proA'es  the  straits  to  which  he 
had  brought  the  Northern  army,  who  would  have 
to  give  up  all  their  new  settlements  round  Gloster. 
That  he  should  have  resigned  so  much  of  the  king- 
dom which  had  acknowledged  his  grandfatlier,  father, 
and  brothers  as  overlords,  proves  how  formidable 
his  foe  still  was,  even  in  defeat,  and  how  thoroughly 
the  northeastern  parts  of  the  island  had  by  this 
time  been  settled  by  the  Danes. 

The  remainder  of  the  short  treaty  would  seem 
simply  to  be  provisional,  and  intended  to  settle  the 
relations  between  Alfred's  subjects  and  the  army 
while  it   remained  within  the  limits  of  the   new 


ETHANDUNE.  125 

Saxon  kingdom.  Many  of  the  soldiers  would  have 
to  break  up  their  homes  in  Glostcvshire  ;  and,  with 
this  view,  the  halt  at  Cirencester  is  allowed,  where, 
as  we  have  already  heard,  they  rest  until  the  win- 
ter. While  they  remain  in  the  Saxon  kingdom  there 
is  to  he  no  distinction  between  Saxon  and  Dane. 
The  were-gild,  or  lile-ransom,  is  to  be  the  same  in 
each  case  for  men  of  like  rank  ;  and  all  suits  for 
more  tlian  four  mancuses  (about  twenty-four  shil- 
lings) are  to  be  tried  by  a  jury  of  peers  of  the  ac- 
cused. On  the  other  hand,  only  necessary  com- 
munications are  to  be  allowed  between  the  North- 
ern army  and  the  people ;  and  where  there  must  be 
trading,  fair  and  peaceful  dealing  is  to  be  insured 
by  the  giving  of  hostages.  This  last  provision,  and 
the  clause  declaring  that  each  man  shall  know  his 
warrantor,  inserted  in  a  fi\^-clause  treaty,  where 
nothing  but  wliat  the  contracting  parties  must  hold 
to  be  of  tlie  very  first  importance  would  find  place, 
is  another  curious  proof  of  the  care  with  which  our 
ancestors,  and  all  Germanic  tribes,  guarded  against 
social  isolation,  —  the  doctrine  that  one  man  has 
nothing  to  do  with  anotlier,  —  a  doctrine  which  the 
great  body  of  their  descendants,  under  the  leading 
of  Schultze,  Delitzsch,  and  otliers,  seem  likely  to  re- 
pudiate with  equal  emphasis  in  these  latter  days, 
both  in  Germany  and  England. 

Thus,  in  July,  878,  the  foundations  of  the  new 
kingdom  of  England  were  laid,  for  new  it  undoubt- 
edly became  when  the  treaty  of  Wedmore  was  signed. 
The  Danish  nation,  no  longer  strangere  and  enemies, 
are  recognized  by  the  heir  of  Cerdic  as  lawful  own- 
ers of  the  full  half  of  Enfjland.     Having  achieved 


12,6  LIFE    OF    ALFKFD    THE    GUEAT. 

which  result,  Guthrum  and  the  rest  of  the  new  con- 
verts leave  the  Saxon  camp  and  return  to  Ciren- 
cester at  the  end  of  twelve  days,  loaded  with  such 
gilts  as  it  was  still  in  the  power  of  their  conquerors 
to  bestow ;  and  Alfred  was  left  in  peace,  to  turn  to 
a  greater  and  more  arduous  task  than  any  he  had 
yet  encountered. 


RETKOSPECT.  127 


CHAPTER    XT. 

RETROSPECT. 

"  Whatsoever  is  brought  on  thee  take  cheerfully,  and  be  patient  when 
thou  art  changed  to  a.  low  estate.  For  gold  is  tried  in  the  fire,  and 
acceptable  men  in  the  furnace  of  adversity." 

THE  great  Danish  invasion  of  England  in  the 
ninth  century,  the  history  of  which  we  have 
just  concluded,  is  one  of  those  facts  which  meet  us 
at  every  turn  in  the  life  of  the  world,  raising  again 
and  again  the  deepest  of  all  questions.  At  first 
siglit  it  stands  out  simply  as  the  triumph  of  brute 
force,  cruelty,  and  anarchy,  over  civilization  and 
order.  It  was  eminently  successful,  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  kingdom  remained  subject  to  the  in- 
vaders. In  its  progress  all  such  civilization  as  had 
taken  root  in  the  land  was  for  the  time  trodden 
out  ;  whole  districts  were  depopulated  ;  lands 
thrown  out  of  cultivation ;  churches,  abbeys,  mon- 
asteries, the  houses  of  nobles  and  peasants,  razed  to 
the  ground  ;  libraries  (such  as  then  existed)  and 
works  of  art  ruthlessly  burnt  and  destroyed.  It 
threw  back  all  Alfred's  reforms  for  eight  years.  To 
the  poor  East  Anglian,  or  West  Saxon  churl  or 
monk  who  had  been  living  his  quiet  life  tliere,  honest- 
ly and  in  the  fear  of  God,  according  to  his  lights,  -^ 
to  him  hiding  away  in  the  swamps  of  tlie  forest, 
amongst  the  swine,  running  wild  now  for  lack  of 
herdsmen,  and  thinking  bitterly  of  the  sack  of  his 


128  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

home,  and  murder  of  his  brethren,  or  of  his  wife 
and  children  by  red-handed  Pagans,  the  heavens 
would  indeed  seem  to  be  shut,  and  the  earth  de- 
livered over  to  the  ]30wers  of  darkness.  Would  it 
not  seem  so  to  us,  if  we  were  in  like  ease  ?  Have  we 
any  faith  which  would  stand  such  a  strain  as  that  ? 

Wlio  shall  say  for  himself  that  he  lias  ?  and  yet 
what  Christian  does  not  know,  in  his  heart  of  heaits, 
that  there  is  such  a  faith,  for  himself  and  for  the 
world,  —  the  faith  which  must  have  carried  Alfred 
through  those  fearful  years,  and  strengthened  liim 
to  build  up  a  new  and  better  England  out  of  the 
ruins  the  Danes  left  behind  them  ?  For,  hard  as  it 
must  be  to  keep  alive  any  belief  or  hope  during  a 
time  w^hen  all  around  us  is  reeling,  and  the  powers 
of  evil  seem  to  be  let  loose  on  the  earth,  when  we 
look  back  upon  these  "  days  of  the  Lord  "  there  is 
no  truth  which  stands  out  more  clearly  on  the  face 
of  history  than  this,  that  they  all  and  each  have 
been  working  towards  order  and  life,  that  "  the 
messengers  of  death  have  been  indeed  messengers 
of  resurrection." 

In  the  case  of  our  fathers,  in  the  England  of  a 
thousand  years  ago,  we  have  not  to  go  far  to  learn 
what  the  Danes  had  to  do  for  them.  There  is  no 
need  to  accept  the  statements  of  later  writers  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  Saxons  and  Angles  at  the  time 
of  the  invasion.  Hoveden,  after  dwelling  on  the 
wars  which  were  so  common  between  the  several 
kingdoms  in  the  eighth  and  early  part  of  the  ninth 
centuries,  sums  up,  that  in  process  of  time  all  "  vir- 
tue had  so  utterly  disappeared  in  them  that  no 
nation  whatsoever  might   compare   with  them  for 


KETHOSrECT.  12 'J 

treachery  and   villany " ;   and  in  John  Hardyng's 
rhymed  Chronicle  we  find  :  — 

"  Thus  in  defiiute  of  lawe  and  peace  conserved 
Common  profyte  was  wasted  and  devoured, 
Parcial  profyte  was  sped  and  obsen-ed, 

And  Venus  also  was  commonly  honoured  — 
Among  them  was  common,  as  the  carte  waye, 
Ryot,  robbery,  oppressyon,  night  and  daye." 

Such  pictures  are,  no  doubt,  very  highly  colored, 
and  there  is  nothing  in  contemporary  writers  to 
justify  them ;  nor  can  we  believe  that  a  nation  in 
so  utterly  rotten  a  state  would  have  met  the  Danes 
as  the  Angles  and  West  Saxons  did.  But  without 
going  further  than  Alfred's  own  writings,  and  the 
Saxon  Chronicle  and  Asser,  which  contain,  after  all, 
the  whole  of  the  evidence  at  first  hand  which  is  left 
to  us,  we  may  see  clearly  enough  that  the  nation, 
if  not  given  over  to  "  riot,  robbery,  and  oppression 
night  and  day,"  was  settling  on  its  lees.  The 
country  had  become  rich  for  those  times  under  the 
long  and  vigorous  rule  of  Egbert,  and  the  people 
were  busy  and  skilful  in  growing  corn,  and  multi- 
plying flocks  and  herds,  and  heaping  up  silver  and 
gold.  But  the  "  common  profyte "  was  more  and 
more  neglected,  as  "  parcial  profyte,"  individual 
gain,  came  to  be  the  chief  object  in  men's  eyes. 
Then  the  higher  life  of  the  nation  began  to  be 
undermined.  The  laws  were  unjustly  interpreted 
and  administered  by  hereditary  aldermen,  who  by 
degrees  became^  almost  independent  of  the  king  in 
their  own  shires  and  districts,  in  all  matters  not 
directly  affecting  his  pereonal  prerogative.  The  re- 
ligious orders,  who  had  been  the  protectors  and  in- 
structors of  the  people,  were  tainted  as  deeply  as 

6*  I 


130  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

the  laity  with  the  same  self-seeking  spirit.  Alfred, 
in  his  preface  to  Gregory's  pastoral,  speaks  sorrow- 
fully of  the  M'ise  men  who  were  found  formerly 
throughout  tlie  English  race,  both  of  the  spiritual 
and  secular  condition,  —  how  the  kings,  and  tliey 
who  then  had  the  government  of  the  folk,  "  obeyed 
God  and  his  messengers,  and  maintained  their  peace, 
their  customs,  and  their  government  at  liome,  and 
also  increased  their  country  abroad,  and  sped  well 
both  in  war  and  wisdom,"  —  how  the  religious  orders 
were  "earnest,  both  about  doctrine  and  learning, 
and  the  services  of  God,  so  that  men  from  abroad 
sought  instruction  in  this  land,  which  we  must  now 
get  from  them  if  Ave  would  have  it."  In  Ethel- 
wulf 's  reign  both  evils  must  have  grown  rapidly,  for 
he  w^as  careless  of  his  secular  duties,  and  left  alder- 
men, and  reeve,  and  sheriff  more  and  more  to  follow 
their  own  ways,  while  he  fostered  the  worst  tenden- 
cies of  his  clergy,  encouraging  them  to  become  more 
and  more  priests  and  keepers  of  the  conscience,  and 
less  shepherds  and  instructors  of  the  people.  So 
religion  was  being  sepai'ated  from  morality,  and  the 
inner  and  spiritual  life  of  the  nation  was  conse- 
quently dying  out,  and  the  people  w^ere  falling  into 
a  dull,  mechanical  habit  of  mind.  Their  religion 
had  become  chiefly  a  matter  of  custom  and  routine ; 
and,  as  a  sure  consequence,  a  sensual  and  grovelling 
life  was  spreading  through  all  classes.  Soon  ma- 
terial decay  would  follow,  if  it  had  not  already  be- 
gun ;  for  healthy,  manly  effort,  honest  and  patient 
digging  and  delving,  planting  and  building,  is  not  to 
be  had  out  of  man  or  nation  whose  conscience  has 
been  put  to  sleep.     "When  the  corn  and  wine  and^ 


RETROSPECT.  131 

oil,  the  silver  and  the  gold,  have  become  the  mafti 
object  of  worship,  —  that  which  men  or  nations  do 
above  all  things  desire,  —  sham  work  of  all  kinds, 
and  short  cuts,  by  what  we  call  financing  and  the 
like,  will  be  the  means  by  which  they  will  attempt 
to  gain  them. 

When  that  state  comes,  men  who  love  their  coun- 
try will  welcome  Danish  invasions,  civil  wars,  po- 
tato diseases,  cotton  famines,  Fenian  agitations, 
whatever  calamity  may  be  needed  to  awake  the 
higher  life  again,  and  bid  the  nation  arise  and  live. 

That  such  visitations  do  come  at  such  times  as  a 
matter  of  fact  is  as  clear  as  that  in  certain  states  of 
the  atmosphere  we  have  thunderstorms.  The  thun- 
derstorm comes  with  perfect  certainty,  and  as  part 
of  a  natural  and  fixed  order.  We  are  all  agreed 
upon  that  now.  We  all  believe,  I  suppose,  that 
there  is  an  order,  that  there  are  laws  which  govern 
the  physical  world,  asserting  themselves  as  much  in 
storm  and  earthquake  as  in  the  succession  of  night 
and  day,  of  seed-time  and  harvest.  We  who  are 
Christians  believe  that  order  and  those  laws  to  pro- 
ceed from  God,  to  be  expressions  of  his  will.  Do 
we  not  also  believe  that  men  are  under  a  di\dne 
order  as  much  as  natural  things  ?  that  there  is  a 
law  of  righteousness  founded  on  the  will  of  God,  as 
sure  and  abiding  as  the  law  of  gravitation  ?  that 
this  law  of  righteousness,  this  divine  order,  under 
which  human  beings  are  living  on  this  earth,  must 
and  does  assert  and  vindicate  itself  through  and  by 
tlie  acts  and  lives  of  men,  as  surely  as  the  divine 
order  in  nature  asserts  itself  through  the  agency  of 
the  invisible  powers  in  earth  and  sea  and  air  ? 


132  LIFE   OF    ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

Surely  Christianity,  Avhatever  else  it  teaches,  at 
any  rate  assures  us  of  this.  And  when  we  have 
made  this  faith  our  own,  when  we  believe  it,  and 
not  merely  believe  that  we  believe  it,  we  have  in 
our  hand  the  clew  to  all  humau  history.  Mysteries 
in  abundance  will  always  remain.  "We  may  not  be 
able  to  tmce  the  workings  of  the  law  of  righteous- 
ness in  the  confusions  and  bewilderments  of  our 
own  day,  or  through  the  darkness  and  mist  which 
shrouds  so  much  of  the  life  of  other  times  and 
other  races.  But  we  know  that  it  is  there,  and  that 
it  has  its  ground  in  a  righteous  will,  which  was  the 
same  a  thousand  years  ago  as  it  is  to-day,  which  every 
man  and  nation  can  get  to  know  ;  and  just  in  so  far 
as  they  know  and  obey  which  will  they  be  founding 
families,  institutions,  states,  which  will  abide. 

If  we  want  to  test  this  truth  in  the  most  prac- 
tical manner,  we  have  only  to  take  any  question 
which  has  troubled,  or  is  troubling,  statesmen  and 
rulers  and  nations,  in  our  own  day.  The  slavery 
question  is  the  greatest  of  these,  at  any  rate  the  one 
which  has  been  most  prominently  before  the  world 
of  late.  In  the  divine  order  that  institution  was 
not  recognized,  there  was  no  place  at  all  set  apart 
for  it ;  on  the  contrary.  He  on  whose  will  that  order 
rests  had  said  that  He  came  to  break  every  yoke. 
And  so  slavery  would  give  our  kindred  in  America 
no  rest,  just  as  it  would  give  us  no  rest  in  the  first 
thirty  years  of  the  century.  The  nation,  desiring 
to  go  on  living  its  life,  making  money,  subduing  a 
continent, 

"Pitching  new  states  as  oM-worlJ  men  pitch  tents," 

tried  every  plan  for  getting  rid  of  the  "  irrepressible 


RETROSPECT.  133 

negro  "  question,  except  the  only  one  recognized  in 
the  divine  order,  —  that  of  making  him  free.  The 
ablest  and  most  moderate  men,  the  Websters  and 
Clays,  thought  and  spoke  and  worked  to  keep  it 
on  its  legs.  Missouri  compromises  were  agi-eed  to, 
"Mason  and  Dixon's  lines"  laid  down, joint  com- 
mittees of  both  Houses  —  at  last  even  a  "crisis 
committee,"  as  it  was  called  —  invented  plan  after 
plan  to  get  it  fairly  out  of  the  way  by  any  means 
except  the  only  one  which  the  eternal  law,  the  law 
of  righteousness,  prescribed.  But  He  whose  wiU 
must  be  done  on  eartli  was  no  party  to  Missouri 
compromises,  and  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  was  not 
laid  down  on  His  map  of  North  America.  And 
there  never  were  wanting  men  who  could  recognize 
His  ^v•ill,  and  denounce  every  compromise,  every 
endeavor  to  set  it  aside,  or  escape  from  it,  as  a 
"covenant  with  death  and  hell."  Despised  and 
persecuted  men  —  Garrisons  and  John  Browns  — 
were  raised  up  to  fight  this  battle,  with  tongue  and 
pen  and  life's  blood,  the  weak  things  of  this  world 
to  confoimd  the  mighty ;  men  who  could  look 
bravely  in  the  face  the  whole  power  and  strength 
of  their  nation  in  the  faith  of  the  old  prophet: 
"Associate  yourselves  and  ye  shall  be  broken  in 
pieces  ;  gather  yourselves  together  and  it  shall  come 
to  naught,  for  God  is  with  us."  And  at  last  the 
thunderstorm  broke,  and  when  it  cleared  away  the 
law  of  righteousness  had  asserted  itself  once  again, 
and  the  nation  was  delivered. 

And  so  it  has  been,  and  is,  and  will  be  to  the  end 
of  time  with  all  nations.  We  have  all  our  "  irre- 
pressible "  questions  of  one  kind  or  another,  more 


136  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

points  out  the  striking  contrast  in  these  early  wars 
between  the  Saxons  and  Danes  in  their  skill  in 
the  erection  and  use  of  fortifications.  Through  the 
whole  of  these  wars  the  former  seem  scarcely  ever 
able  to  hold  a  town  or  fort,  if  we  except  Cynuit ; 
while  the  Danes  never  lose  one.  At  the  beginninfj 
of  each  year  of  the  war  tlie  chroniclers  relate  mo- 
notonously how  the  Pagans  seize  some  town  or 
strong  place,  such  as  Nottingham,  Eeading,  Exeter, 
Chippenham,  apparently  without  difficulty,  certainly 
with  no  serious  delay  ;  but  when  once  they  are  in 
it  they  are  never  dislodged  by  force.  In  the  same 
way,  none  of  their  fortified  camps,  such  as  that  at 
Wareham,  were  ever  taken  ;  and  the  remains  at 
Uffington  Castle  and  Bratton  Castle  show  how  skil- 
ful they  were  in  these  military  earthworks,  and  what 
formidable  places  the  crests  of  hills  on  the  open 
downs  became  under  their  hands.  Alfred  never 
lost  a  hint,  for  he  had  a  mind  thoroughly  humble, 
and  therefore  open  to  the  reception  of  new  truth  ; 
so  in  setting  to  Avork  to  restore  the  forts  which  had 
been  destroyed  or  damaged,  we  may  be  sure  he 
profited  by  the  lessons  of  the  great  struggle.  At 
what  time,  or  in  what  order,  the  restoration  took 
place,  we  have  no  hint.  In  this,  as  in  almost  all 
parts  of  Alfred's  work,  we  only  know  the  results. 
How  efficiently  it  was  done,  however,  between  the 
peace  of  Wedmore  and  the  next  great  war,  which 
broke  out  in  893,  we  may  gather  from  the  fact  that 
the  great  leader  of  that  invasion,  Hasting,  was  never 
able  to  take  an  important  town  or  stronghold. 

That  terrible  viking,  who  for  years  had  been  the 
scourge  of  the  French  coasts,  was  in  this  same  au- 


THE    king's    bUAKD    UF    WuKKS.  137 

tumn  of  879  at  Fulhani.  Dr.  Pauli,  who  has  re- 
markable sagacity  in  suggesting  what  the  short 
vague  notices  in  the  Chronicles  really  mean,  thinks 
tliat  Hasting  had  been  witli  Guthrum  both  at  Ethan- 
dune  and  Chippenham,  and  from  thence  accompanied 
tlie  beaten  army  to  Cirencester.  That  after  the  re- 
turn of  the  Danish  king  and  his  thirty  nobles  from 
their  baptism  at  Wedmore,  he  left  the  army,  taking 
with  him  his  own  followers,  and  all  those  of  the 
army  who  refused  to  become  Cliristians,  and  with 
these  sailed  round  the  south  coast,  and  up  the 
Thames  to  Fulham.  On  the  other  hand,  after  sucli 
a  lesson  of  the  power  wielded  by  Alfred,  and  his 
capacity  as  a  leader,  one  must  doubt  whether  so 
able  a  commander  as  Hasting  would  have  been 
ready  at  once  to  open  another  campaign  in  Wes- 
sex.  The  Saxon  Chronicle  simply  says  that  "  a 
body  of  pirates  drew  together,  and  sat  down  at 
Fulham  on  the  Thames  "  ;  Asser,  that  "  a  large  army 
of  Pagans  sailed  from  foreign  parts  into  the  river 
Thames,  and  joined  the  army  which  was  already 
in  the  country."  On  the  whole,  it  seems  more 
probable  that  Hasting,  or  whoever  was  the  leader 
of  the  Danes  who  wintered  at  Fulham  in  this 
year,  came  from  abroad,  and  was  joined  there  by 
the  wild  spirits  from  Guthrum's  army,  the  reso- 
lute Pagans  and  pirates  to  whom  peaceful  life  was 
thoroughly  distasteful.  The  greater  part  of  that 
anny  certainly  never  left  Cirencester  till  the  next 
spring,  and  remained  faithful  to  the  terms  of  the 
Treaty  of  Wedmore.  So  the  Danes  at  Fulham, 
seeing  no  chance  of  rousing  their  countrymen  to 
another  attempt  on  Alfred's  crown  and  kingdom,  and 


138  LIFE    OV    ALFRED    THE    (lUEAT. 

witnessing  through  the  autumn  and  winter  mouths 
the  vigor  with  which  the  King  was  providing  for  the 
defence  of  the  country,  sailed  away  to  Ghent.  And 
from  this  time,  for  upwards  of  four  precious  years, 
no  band  of  Pagans  landed  on  English  soil,  and  the 
whole  land  had  rest,  and  King  Alfred  leisure  to  turn 
to  all  the  great  reforms  that  he  had  in  his  mind. 

So,  for  one  thing,  the  rebuilding  and  strengthen- 
ing of  the  fortresses  all  along  the  coast  could  now 
go  on  without  hindrance.  The  whole  of  the  book- 
land  of  England  was  held  subject  to  the  building 
of  bridges  and  fortresses,  and  marching  against  an 
enemy,  so  that  the  whole  manhood  of  the  kingdom 
might  have  been  at  once  turned  upon  this  work. 
But  Alfred  had  learned  in  the  first  years  of  his  reign 
that  his  people  would  not  well  bear  forcing ;  more- 
over, he  had  new  ideas  on  the  subject  of  building ; 
was  feeling  his  way  towards  the  substitution  of 
stone  for  wood-work,  and  importing  the  most  skilled 
masons  to  be  found  on  the  Continent  to  instruct  his 
own  people.  In  his  scriptural  readings,  too,  he  will 
have  become  acquainted  with  the  story  of  Solo- 
mon's buildings ;  how  that  wisest  of  monarchs,  by 
the  forced  labor  on  his  magnificent  public  works, 
exhausted  the  energies  and  alienated  the  affections 
of  his  people,  an  example  to  be  carefully  avoided  by 
a  Christian  king.  Such  of  the  strong  places,  then,  on 
the  coast  and  elsewhere,  as  belonged  to  the  l^ing 
himself,  rose  steadily  without  haste  and  without 
pause  from  their  ruins,  with  all  the  newest  improve- 
ments which  the  best  foreign  workmen,  or  the  ex- 
perience of  the  late  war,  could  suggest.  At  fii-st  it 
did  not  fare  so  well  with  those  which  had  to  be  in- 


THE   king's   liUAlU)   OF   WORKS.  139 

trusted  to  others,  and  nothing  can  give  us  a  more 
vivid  impression  of  the  dead  weight  of  indifference 
and  stupidity  which  Alfred  had  to  contend  against 
in  his  early  efforts  than  the  passage  in  Asser  which 
speaks  of  tliis  business,  of  restoring  these  fortified 
places.  It  occurs  under  the  year  887,  by  which 
time  it  is  plain,  from  the  end  of  the  passage,  that 
the  King  had  triumphed  over  all  his  difficulties,  and 
had  inspired  the  officers  in  all  parts  of  his  kingdom 
with  some  of  his  own  spirit  and  energy.  "  AVhat 
shall  I  say,"  writes  his  faithful  friend,  "of  the 
cities  and  towns  which  he  restored,  and  of  others 
which  he  built  where  none  had  been  before  ?  of  the 
royal  haUs  and  chambers  wonderfully  erected  by  his 
command,  with  wood  and  stone  ?  of  the  royal  resi- 
dences, constructed  of  stone,  removed  from  their  old 
sites,  and  handsomely  rebuilt  under  his  direction  in 
more  suitable  places  ? "  probably  where  they  were 
less  open  to  assaults,  such  as  those  which  had  taken 
Eeading  and  Chippenham.  "  Besides  the  disease 
above  mentioned,  he  was  disturbed  by  the  quarrels 
of  his  friends,  who  would  voluntarily  undergo  little 
or  no  toil,  though  it  were  for  the  common  need  of 
the  kingdom  ;  but  he  alone,  sustained  by  the  aid  of 
Heaven,  like  a  skilful  pilot  strove  to  steer  his  ship 
laden  with  much  wealth  into  the  safe  and  much-de- 
sired harbor,  though  almost  all  his  crew  were  tired, 
and  suffered  them  not  to  faint,  or  hesitate,  though 
sailing  amidst  the  manifold  waves  and  eddies  of  this 
present  life.  For  all  Ins  bishops,  earls,  nobles,  favor- 
ite ministers  and  prefects,  who,  next  to  God  and  the 
king,  had  the  whole  government  of  the  kingdom,  as 
is  fitting,  continually  received  from  him  instruction. 


140  LIFE    OF    ALFRED    THE    CUtEAT. 

respect,  exhortation,  and  command,  —  nay,  at  last, 
when  they  continued  disobedient,  and  his  long 
patience  was  exhausted,  he  would  reprove  them 
severely,  and  censure  their  A'ulgar  folly  and  ob- 
stinacy ;  and  thus  he  directed  their  attention  to 
his  own  will,  and  to  the  common  interests  of  the 
kingdom.  Owing,  however,  to  the  sluggishness  of 
his  people,  these  admonitions  of  the  King  were  either 
not  fulfilled,  or  begun  late  in  the  hour  of  need,  and 
so  fell  out  the  less  to  the  advantage  of  those  who 
executed  them.  For  I  will  say  nothing  of  the  cas- 
tles which  he  ordered  to  be  built,  but  which,  being 
begun  late,  were  never  finished,  because  the  enemy 
broke  in  upon  them  by  sea  and  land,  and,  as 
often  fell  out,  the  thwarters  of  the  King's  will  re- 
pented when  it  was  too  late,  and  were  ashamed  at 
their  non-performance  of  his  commands.  I  speak 
of  repentance  \vhen  it  is  too  lat€,"  the  good  Bishop 
indignantly  continues,  "  on  the  testimony  of  Scrip- 
ture, by  which  it  appears  that  numberless  persons 
have  had  cause  for  too  much  sorrow  after  many 
insidious  evils  have  come  to  pass.  But  though  by 
these  means,  sad  to  say,  they  may  be  bitterly  af- 
flicted and  roused  to  sorrow  by  the  loss  of  fathers, 
wives,  children,  ministers,  servant-men,  servant- 
maids,  and  furniture  and  household  stuff,  what  is 
the  use  of  hateful  repentance,  when  their  kinsmen 
are  dead,  and  they  cannot  aid  them,  or  redeem  those 
who  are  captive  from  captivity  ?  for  they  are  not 
able  even  to  assist  those  who  have  escaped,  as  they 
have  not  wherewith  to  sustain  even  their  own  lives. 
They  repented,  therefore,  when  it  was  too  late,  and 
grieved  at  their  incautious  neglect  of  the  King's 


THE    king's   board    OF   WORKS.  141 

commands,  and  praised  the  King's  wisdom  with  one 
voice,  and  tried  with  all  their  power  to  fulfil  what 
they  had  before  refused  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  erection 
of  castles,  and  other  things  generally  useful  to  the 
whole  kingdom." 

A  vivid  picture,  truly,  of  the  state  of  things  in 
England  a  thousand  years  ago,  for  all  of  wliich  might 
we  not  without  much  research  find  parallels  enough 
in  our  own  day  ?  One  would  fain  hope  tliat  we 
are  not  altogether  without  some  equivalent  in  late 
years  for  that  patient,  never-faltering  pressure  of 
the  King,  sometimes  lighting  up  into  scathing 
reproof  of  the  "  vulgar  folly  and  obstinacy "  of 
many  of  those  through  whom  he  has  to  work.  It 
is  refreshing  to  find  a  bisliop  fairly  roused  by  these 
squabbles, — this  unreasoning  sluggishness  of  men 
who  called  themselves  the  King's  friends,  and  should 
have  been  doing  the  work  he  liad  appointed  them, 
—  denouncing  the  repentance  of  such,  after  the  mis- 
chief has  been  done,  as  "  hateful,"  not  a  worthy  act 
at  all,  or  one  likely  to  deserve  the  approbation  of 
God  or  the  King,  in  this  bishop's  judgment. 

The  reference  to  the  "  breaking  in  of  the  enemy 
by  land  and  sea  "  upon  the  unfinished  fortifications, 
must  point  to  the  years  between  872  and  878  ;  for 
from  the  date  of  the  peace  of  "NVedmore  no  strong 
place  of  the  Saxons  was  taken  during  Alfred's  life.  It 
was  not  until  885  that  the  Northmen  even  ventured 
on  any  descent  in  force  on  the  coast  of  England.  In 
that  year  the  army  which  had  gathered  round  the 
band  of  old  heathen  rovers  who  followed  Hasting  from 
Fulham  to  Ghent  in  the  spring  of  880,  and  had  been 
ravacjinfj  the  banks  of  the  Meuse  and  the  Scheldt 


142  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

ever  since,  after  wintering  at  Amiens,  at  last  broke 
in  two.  One  lialf,  under  a  leader  whose  name  has 
not  come  down  to  us,  took  to  their  ships,  and  in  their 
old  form  stole  up  tlie  Thames  and  Medway,  and 
made  a  sudden  dash  at  liochester.  But  now  for  the 
first  time  they  were  completely  foiled  in  their  first 
onslaught.  They  could  not  storm  the  place,  which 
was  well  fortified  and  gallantly  held,  so  they  threw 
up  strong  works  before  the  gates,  in  hopes  of  taking 
the  town  by  famine  or  storm  before  succor  could  ar- 
rive. In  this,  however,  they  were  soon  undeceived. 
Alfred  appeared  promptly  in  Kent  at  the  head  of  a 
strong  force,  and,  without  awaiting  his  attack,  the 
Danes  tied  to  their  ships,  leaving  great  spoil,  which 
they  had  brought  with  them  from  France,  including 
a  number  of  horses  and  prisoners,  in  tlieir  fortified 
camp  before  Rochester  Gate.  And  so  they  betake 
themselves  to  France  a2;ain,  ha^'in<:J  found  tliis  visit 
to  England  very  decidedly  unprofitable. 

We  may  fairly  conclude,  then,  that  by  the  year 
885  tliose  provoking  bishops,  earls,  nobles,  fa\orite 
ministers,  and  prefects,  had  come  to  their  senses, 
and  had  learnt  to  obey  their  king's  commands,  and 
to  see  that  there  was  good  reason  for  anything  lie 
might  set  them  to  work  on.  Thus,  as  the  fruit  of 
years  of  patient  and  steady  pressure,  at  last  Alfred 
has  his  forts  in  order,  a  chain  of  them  all  round  the 
southern  coast  some  say,  and  his  royal  residences 
and  larger  towns  for  the  most  part  sufficiently  pro- 
tected against  sudden  attack,  so  far  as  walls  and 
ditches  will  secure  them.  London  only  still  lies  in 
a  miserably  defenceless  state,  and  all  the  best  parts 
in  ruins,  the  respectable  inhabitants  fled  across  seas 


THE  king's  board  of  wokks.  143 

or  into  Wessex  ;  and  only  a  wikl,  lawless  popula- 
tion, the  sweepings  of  many  nations  and  tribes,  left 
to  haunt  the  river  side,  picking  up  a  precarious  liv- 
ing, no  one  can  tell  how,  and  ready  to  join  any  baud 
of  marauders  who  might  be  making  use  of  the  de- 
serted houses.  The  great  city  which  had  been  al- 
most able  to  stand  alone,  and  assert  its  independence 
of  ]\Iercia  or  of  any  overlord,  ever  since  Ethelwulf 's 
time,  has  fallen  to  be  a  mere  colony  of  'long-shore 
men,  gathering  round  changing  bands  of  pirates. 
The  city  has  been  Alfred's  ever  since  the  Treaty  of 
AVedmore,  and  he  has  been,  no  doubt,  carefully  con- 
sidering what  can  be  done,  and  preparing  to  deal 
with  it ;  but  it  is  an  arduous  and  e.xpensive  under- 
taking, and  has  to  wait  till  more  pressing  building 
operations  —  particularly  the  necessary  coast  de- 
fences—  have  been  completed. 

At  length  in  886  all  his  preparations  are  made, 
and  he  marches  on  London  with  a  sufficient  force 
to  deal  with  such  organized  bands  of  Northmen  as 
might  for  the  time  be  holding  it,  and  with  the  'long- 
shore population.  Ethelwerd's  Chronicle  speaks  of 
a  siege,  and  Huntingdon's  of  a  "great  force  of 
Danes,"  who  fled  when  the  place  was  invested ;  but 
the  Saxon  Chronicle  and  Asser  contain  no  hint, 
either  of  a  siege,  or  of  any  organized  force  within 
the  city.  It  is  probable  therefore  that  London  sub- 
mitted to  Alfred  at  once  without  a  blow.  Here,  in 
what  had  been  even  in  Roman  times  the  great  com- 
mercial capital  of  England,  his  splendid  organizing 
talents  had  full  scope  during  the  year.  The  ac- 
counts in  the  best  authorities  agree  entirely  as  to 
this  work  of  886.    They  are  short  and  graphic.    "  In 


144  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

this  year  Alfred,  King  of  the  "West  Saxons,  after  the 
burning  of  cities  and  slaying  of  the  people,  lionor- 
ably  rebuilt  the  city  of  London,  and  made  it  again 
habitable.  He  gave  it  into  the  custody  of  his  son- 
in-law  Ethelred,  alderman  of  ^Mercia ;  to  which 
kihg  all  the  Angles  and  Saxons  who  before  had 
been  dispersed  everywhere,  or  were  in  bondage 
under  the  Pagans,  voluntarily  turned,  and  submitted 
themselves  to  his  dominion."  The  foreign  masons 
and  mechanics,  of  whom  Alfred  by  this  time  had 
large  numbers  in  his  regular  pay,  made  swift  work 
with  the  rebuilding  of  London  ;  and  within  a  few 
years,  under  Ethelred's  rule,  the  city  had  regained 
its  old  pre-eminence.  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Danes 
thronged  to  it  indiscriminately,  the  latter  occupying 
their  own  quarters.  A  colony  of  them  settled  on 
the  southern  side  of  the  river,  and  built  Southwark 
(Syd  virke,  the  southern  fortification),  where  one  of 
the  principal  thoroughfares,  Tooley  Street  (a  cor- 
ruption of  St.  Olave's  Street),  still  bears  the  name 
of  the  patron  saint  of  Norway.  On  the  northern 
side  of  the  Thames  also,  to  the  west  of  the  city, 
they  established  another  setUement,  in  which  was 
their  chief  burial-place,  and  named  it  St.  Clement 
Danes.  We  may  reckon  the  rebuilding  and  reset- 
tlement of  London  as  the  crowning  act  of  the 
King's  work  as  a  restorer  of  the  fenced  cities  of 
his  realm,  and  have  now  to  follow  him,  as  well  as 
the  confused  materials  at  our  command  will  allow 
us,  in  other  departments  no  less  difficult  to  handle 
than  this  of  the  Board  of  Works,  in  which  his  wise 
and  unflagging  energy  was  bringing  order  out  of 
chaos,  and  economizing  and  developing  the  great 
resources  of  his  kingdom. 


THE   KIMG'S    war   OFFICE   XSD   ADMIRAXTY.     145 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE  king's   WAE  OFFICE  A^'D   ADiHRALTY. 

"  And  I  took  the  chief  of  your  tribes,  wise  men  and  known,  and  made 
them  heads  over  you,  captains  over  hundreds,  and  captains  over 
fifties,  and  captains  over  tens,  and  officers  amongst  your  tribes." 

THE  restoration  of  aU  the  old  fortresses  of  the 
kingdom,  and  the  building  of  a  number  of 
fresh  ones,  though  apparently  the  work  which  Alfred 
thouglit  of  first,  and  pressed  on  most  vigorously, 
was  after  all  only  a  reform  of  second-rate  impor- 
tance compared  with  the  reconstruction  and  per- 
manent organization  of  his  army  and  navy.  This 
also  he  took  in  hand  at  once,  going  straight  to  the 
root  of  the  matter,  as  indeed  was  always  the  habit 
with  this  king,  his  whole  nature  being  of  a  thorough- 
ness which  would  never  allow  him  to  work  only  on 
the  surface. 

It  is  by  no  means  easy  to  understand  the  military 
organization  of  the  "West  Saxons  before  Alfred's 
reign,  if  indeed  they  had  anything  that  may  be 
called  an  organization.  That  every  freeman  was 
liable  to  a  call  to  arms  whenever  the  country  was 
threatened  by  an  enemy,  or  the  king  was  bent  on  in- 
vading his  neighbor's  territory,  and  that  the  king 
had  no  force  of  his  own,  but  was  in  the  hands  of 
his  aldermen  and  earls,  and  obliged  to  rely  on  what 
force  they  could  bring  together,  —  this  seems  clear 
enough,  but  unfortunately  we  have  no  means  of 
7  J 


146  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

knowing  with  any  accuracy  liow  tlie  call  was  made, 
what  were  the  penalties  for  disobeying  it,  or  the 
conditions  of  service  in  the  field,  —  whether  the 
soldier  received  pay  and  rations,  or  had  to  support 
himself.  So  far  as  we  can  gather  from  the  meagre 
accounts  of  the  wars  in  Ethelwulf 's  and  Ethelred's 
reign,  and  of  Alfred's  early  campaigns,  as  soon  as 
danger  threatened,  the  hereditary  alderman  of  the 
shire  nearest  the  point  of  attack  summoned  all  free- 
holders witliin  his  jurisdiction,  and  took  the  field  at 
once,  while  the  king,  through  their  aldermen,  gath- 
ered troops  in  other  shires,  and  brought  them  up  to 
the  scene  of  action  as  fast  as  he  could.  Thus  in  861 
the  Aldermen  Osric  and  Ethelwulf,  with  the  men  of 
Hants  and  Berks,  fell  at  once  upon  the  pillagers  of 
Winchester  without  waiting  for  Kino;  Ethelbert : 
and  again  Ethelwulf,  ten  years  later,  in  871,  fights 
the  battle  of  Englefield  with  the  first  division  of  the 
Danish  army  from  Eeading,  only  three  days  after 
the  arrival  of  the  Pagans,  before  Ethelred  and  Al- 
fred can  come  up.  ]More  instances  might  be  cited, 
if  needed,  to  show  that  either  the  penalties  on  slack- 
ness in  coming  to  muster  were  very  sharp,  or  that 
the  zeal  of  the  West  Saxons  for  fighting  was  of  the 
strongest.  As  a  rule,  the  men  of  the  shire  might 
evidently  be  relied  on  to  meet  the  first  brunt  of 
attack.  It  is  equally  clear  that  these  levies  could 
not  be  depended  upon  for  any  lengthened  time. 
They  dwindled  away  after  a  few  weeks,  or  mouths, 
on  the  approach  of  harvest,  or  the  failure  in  sup- 
plies, or  zeal.  In  short,  the  system  was  practically, 
to  a  great  extent,  a  voluntary  one,  and  very  uncer- 
tain in   its   operation,   throwing   altogether   unfair 


THE   king's   war   OFFICE   AND   ADMIRALTY.     147 

linrdens  now  on  this  district,  now  on  the  other,  as 
the  Pagans  gained  a  fortified  position  in  Berkshire, 
Dorsetsliire,  or  Wiltshire. 

During  his  early  campaigns  Alfred  must  have 
seen  the  disadvantage  at  which  he  and  the  "West 
Saxons  were  placed  by  this  haphazard  system,  and 
have  gradually  matured  the  changes  which  he  was 
now  able  to  introduce.  These  were  somewhat  as 
follow.  The  whole  fighting  strength  of  the  kingdom 
was  divided  into  three  parts  or  companies.  Of 
these,  one  company  was  called  out,  Asser  says,  and 
remained  on  duty,  "  night  and  day,  for  one  month, 
after  which  they  returned  to  their  homes,  and  were 
relieved  by  the  second  company.  At  the  end  of  the 
second  month,  in  the  same  way,  the  third  company 
relieved  the  second,  who  returned  to  their  homes, 
where  they  spent  two  months,"  until  their  turn  for 
service  came  round  again.  No  military  service  was 
required  of  any  man  beyond  three  months  in  the 
year,  so  that  during  the  three  winter  months  neither 
of  the  three  military  companies  was  on  duty.  Of 
the  company  on  duty  for  the  time  being,  a  portion 
was  told  off  for  the  defence  of  the  principal  for- 
tresses, and  the  remainder  constituted  a  body-guard 
or  standing  army,  moving  about  under  arms  with 
the  King  and  court 

This  at  least  is  the  account  which  has  come  down 
to  us,  but  it  is  obviously  incomplete  or  incorrect. 
It  is  quite  impossible  that  a  third  of  the  fighting 
strength  of  the  whole  kingdom  could  have  been 
constantly  maintained  imder  arms  by  Alfred.  For, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  the  times  of 
his  iather  and  brothers,  there  can  be  little  doubt 


148  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

that  he  both  maintained  and  paid  his  soldiers. 
This  appears  from  his  own  writings,  as  well  as  from 
the  chroniclers.  After  declaring  that  he  had  never 
much  yearned  after  earthly  power,  the  King  goes  on 
(in  the  interpolation  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of 
his  translation  of  Boethius) :  "  Nevertheless  I  was 
desirous  of  materials  for  the  work  which  I  was  com- 
manded to  perform ;  that  is,  that  I  might  honor- 
ably and  fitly  exercise  the  power  which  was  in- 
trusted to  me.  Moreover,  no  man  can  show  any 
skill,  or  exercise  or  control  any  power,  without  tools 
and  materials ;  that  is,  of  every  craft  the  materials 
without  which  man  cannot  exercise  the  craft.  This, 
then,  is  a  king's  material,  and  liis  tools  to  reign 
with,  —  that  he  have  his  land  well  peopled.  He 
must  have  bead-men  and  soldiers  and  workmen ; 
without  these  tools  no  king  can  show  his  craft. 
This  is  also  his  material  that  he  must  have  as  well 
as  the  tools,  —  provision  for  the  three  classes.  This 
is  then  their  provision ;  land  to  live  on,  and  pay, 
and  weapons,  and  meat,  and  ale,  and  clothes,  and 
whatsoever  is  necessary  for  the  three  classes.  He 
cannot  without  these  preserve  the  tools,  or  without 
the  tools  accomplish  any  of  those  things  which  he 
is  commanded  to  perform.  Therefore  I  was  desirous 
of  materials  wherewith  to  exercise  the  power,  that 
my  w^ork  and  the  report  thereof  should  not  be  for- 
gotten or  hidden.  For  every  craft  and  every  power 
soon  becomes  old,  and  is  passed  over  in  silence,  if 
it  be  without  wisdom.  Because  whatsoever  is  done 
through  folly  no  one  can  ever  reckon  for  craft.  This 
I  will  now  truly  say,  that  while  I  have  lived  I  have 
striven  to  live  worthily,  and  after  mv  life  to  leave  to 


THE   king's    war   OFFICE    AND   ADMIRALTY.     149 

the  men  who  were  after  me  my  memory  in  good 
works." 

I  could  not  touch  the  passage  without  quoting  it 
whole  ;  for,  while  treading  on  dangerous  ground,  it 
seems  to  me  to  vindicate  "  king-craft "  as  Alfred 
understood  and  practised  it,  and  to  throw  a  gleam  of 
light  on  his  brave  and  pious  life  which  we  cannot 
sjjare.  "  King-craft  "  in  the  mouth  of  James  I.  meant 
the  professional  cleverness  of  the  sovereign, —  that 
cunning,  a  substitute  for  courage,  by  which  he,  as 
king,  could  gain  his  selfish  ends  and  exalt  his  office,  as 
he  understood  it.  A  contemptible,  not  to  say  hateful 
meaning,  which  the  phrase  has  retained  ever  since 
in  England.  Alfred's  idea  of  kingcraft  is  "  a  work 
which  he  is  commanded  to  perform,"  which  it  is  woe 
to  him  if  he  fail  in  performing.  The  two  ideas  are 
as  wide  apart  as  the  character  and  work  of  the  two 
kings. 

But  the  evidence  does  not  rest  on  this  passage. 
Asser,  speaking  of  the  division  which  the  King 
made  of  his  income,  says  that  one  third  of  the  part 
which  he  devoted  to  secular  purposes  went  to  pay 
his  soldiers  and  ministers  ;  and  Florence,  that  "  he 
gave  the  first  portion  of  his  income  yearly  to  his 
soldiers."  Now,  however  highly  we  may  be  in- 
clined to  reckon  Alfred's  income,  it  is  quite  im- 
possible to  suppose  that  one  sixth  of  it  could  have 
found  weapons,  meat,  ale,  and  clothes,  as  weU  as 
pay,  for  anything  like  a  tliird  of  his  available  force. 
It  is  probable,  then,  that  only  a  small  part  of  the 
company  whose  turn  it  might  be  for  active  service 
were  actually  caUed  out,  and  kept  imder  arms, 
either  with  the  court,  or  in  the  fortresses.     These 


150  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

were  paid  by  the  King,  while  the  remainder  of  the 
company  were  not  paid,  unless  they  too  were  ac- 
tually called  out,  though  during  their  month  they 
were  no  doubt  constantly  exercised,  and  kept  in 
readiness  to  muster  at  any  moment. 

It  is  not,  however,  of  much  importance,  even  if 
it  were  possible  to  ascertain  the  precise  detail  of 
Alfred's  military  reforms.  The  essence  and  result 
of  them  is  clear  enough  ;  namely,  that  he  had  al- 
ways a  full  third  of  his  whole  force  ready  to  act 
against  an  enemy  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  that 
the  burdens  of  military  service  were  equally  dis- 
tributed over  the  whole  kingdom. 

Side  by  side  with  the  fortifications  of  his  coast- 
towns,  and  the  reorganization  of  his  land-forces, 
the  King  pushed  on  with  energy  the  construction 
of  such  a  navy  as  would  enable  him  to  beat  the 
Northmen  on  their  own  element.  We  have  seen 
that,  early  in  his  first  short  inters'al  of  peace,  he 
was  busy  with  his  work,  having,  no  doubt,  even 
then  satisfied  himself  that  his  kingdom  could  only  be 
effectually  defended  by  sea.  In  875  he  puts  to  sea 
for  the  first  time,  and  fights  his  first  naval  battle 
with  success,  taking  one  of  the  sea-king's  ships. 
This  will  have  given  him  a  model  upon  which  to  im- 
prove the  build  of  his  own  ships.  He  accordingly, 
in  877,  "  commands  boats  and  long  ships  to  be  built 
throughout  the  kingdom,  in  order  that  he  might  offer 
battle  by  sea  to  the  enemy  as  they  were  coming,  and 
on  board  of  these  he  placed  seamen,  and  appointed 
them  to  watch  the  seas."  The  result  of  this  wdse 
foresight  was  the  destruction  of  the  Danish  fleet  off 
Swanage,  on  its  way  to  the  relief  of  Exeter. 


THE   kino's    war   OFFICE   AND    ADMIKALTY.     151 

But  the  West  Saxon  ships  were  no  better  than 
the  enemy's,  until  Alfred's  practical  sagacity  and 
genius  for  mechanics  were  Li-ought  to  bear  on  ship- 
building. The  precise  year  in  which  the  great  re- 
construction of  his  fleet  was  made  is  not  ascertain- 
able. The  Saxon  Chronicle  places  it  as  late  as  897, 
but  it  wiU  be  convenient  to  notice  it  here  while  we 
are  on  the  subject.  Tlie  vessels  then  which,  after 
much  study  of  the  matter,  he  ordered  to  be  built, 
were  twice  as  long  and  high  as  those  of  the  Danes, 
and  had  forty,  sixty,  or  in  some  instances  even  a 
larger  number  of  oars.  They  were  also,  it  is  said, 
swifter  and  steadier  than  the  older  vessels,  as  well 
as  longer  and  higher,  and  "  were  shapen  neither 
like  the  Frisian  nor  the  Danish,  but  so  as  it  seemed 
to  the  King  they  would  be  most  efficient."  Alfred's 
galleys  are  perhaps  less  puzzling  than  the  Greek 
trireme  ;  at  the  same  time  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine 
how  the  account  in  the  Chronicle  can  be  correct. 
Galleys  would  naturally  be  slower  in  proportion  to 
their  height,  though  of  course  much  more  formida- 
ble as  fighting-vessels.  The  West  Saxon  was  not 
a  seafaring  man  ;  at  best  was  only  inclined  to  go  on 
board  ship  for  some  definite  and  immediate  piece 
of  fighting,  and  the  King's  regular  fleet  was  manned 
by  sailors  of  many  tribes,  —  Frisians,  Franks,  Brit- 
ons, Scots,  Armoricans ;  even  pagan  Danes  who 
took  service  with  him.  And  all  these,  of  whatever 
race,  "  according  to  their  merits,  were  ruled,  loved, 
honored,  and  enriched  by  Alfred."  And  in  this  de- 
partment, as  in  liis  military  reforms,  results  at  once 
and  abundantly  justified  his  sagacity,  for  he  was 
never  badly  worsted  in  a  sea-fight,  and  towards  the 


152  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

end  of  his  reign  his  fleet  had  swept  the  coasts  of 
England  clear  of  the  sea-rovers. 

Within  two  years  after  the  peace  of  "Wedmore 
the  fleet  was  ready  to  go  to  sea,  and  it  was  not  a 
day  too  soon.  At  no  former  time,  indeed,  were  the 
western  coasts  of  Europe  more  terribly  scourged  by 
the  Northmen.  The  great  empire  of  Charlemagne, 
broken  into  weak  fragments,  was  overrun  by  them. 
The  army  that  had  so  recently  left  Fulham  under 
the  leadership  of  Hasting,  reinforced  by  constant 
arrivals  from  Norway  and  Denmark,  had  left  Ghent 
in  881,  and  laid  waste  the  banks  of  the  Meuse  and 
the  Scheldt.  They  were  even  now  pressing  south- 
wards, and  threatening  Paris  and  Amiens.  It  is  a 
time  for  vigilance  and  prompt  action  if  the  new 
kingdom  is  to  be  consolidated  in  peace.  One  small 
squadron  of  the  Northmen,  sweeping  south,  turn 
towards  the  English  coasts  in  the  hope  of  plunder, 
in  the  summer  of  882,  and  find  the  King  ready  for 
them.  Alfred  himself  goes  to  meet  them  ;  and  of 
the  four  Danish  vessels  two  were  taken  fiji'htin'? 
and  all  hands  killed,  and  the  commanders  of  the 
remaining  two  surrendered  after  a  desperate  resist- 
ance. "They  M^ere  sorely  distressed  and  wounded," 
the  Chronicle  remarks,  "  before  they  surrendered." 

But  the  first  occasion  on  which  the  new^  organiza- 
tion of  the  forces  of  the  kingdom  was  put  to  any 
severe  test  was  not  until  three  years  later,  when  the 
attempt  on  Rochester,  already  mentioned,  was  made. 
To  understand  the  importance  of  it,  we  must  go 
back  to  the  time  when  Guthrum  Athelstan  crossed 
the  IVIercian  borders,  under  solemn  pledges  to  settle 
quietly  down  as  undisputed  king  of  East  Anglia, 


THE   king's   war   OFFICE   AND   ADMIRALTY.     153 

under  nominal  allegiance,  indeed,  to  his  great  con- 
queror, but  practically  as  the  equal  sovereign  of  a 
friendly  but  independent  kingdom.  Unluckily  for 
the  good  resolutions  of  the  new  convert,  there  was  a 
tempter  at  his  elbow.  One  Iserabart,  a  near  relative 
of  Carloraan,  king  of  the  AVestem  Franks,  had  been 
exiled  1)y  that  monarch,  and  had  served  with  Guth- 
runi  in  his  last  invasion  of  Wessex.  He  is  bound 
for  his  own  country,  where  there  are  all  manner  of 
chances  in  these  times  for  rebels  ;  and  the  king  of 
East  Anglia,  unable  to  resist  the  scent  of  battle  and 
the  chances  of  plunder,  accompanies  him  with  a 
force.  Aft€r  a  short  career  of  atrocities,  Guthrum 
Athelstan  is  defeated  in  a  battle  near  Sancourt,  and 
returns  to  East  Anglia,  having,  on  the  one  hand, 
roused  Alfred's  suspicions,  and  on  the  other  restored 
his  own  relations  with  Hasting  and  the  Northern 
bands.  During  the  next  year  or  two  settlements 
of  pirates  are  allowed  to  establish  themselves  on 
the  East  Anglian  coasts,  and  before  885  several  of 
the  hostages  given  to  Alfred  after  the  battle  of 
Ethandune  had  died,  and  their  places  remained  un- 
filled. In  short,  there  are  the  gravest  reasons  for 
Alfred  to  doubt  the  good  faith,  or  the  good-will,  of 
Gutlirum  Athelstan  and  his  people. 

At  this  crisis  came  the  Danish  descent  on  Kent 
and  siege  of  Rochester,  abandoned  preci^ntately  by 
tlie  invadei"s  on  the  prompt  advance  of  Alfred. 
Tliey  fled  to  their  ships  and  made  oft",  some  back  to 
the  P'rench  coast,  and  others  across  the  Thames  to 
Essex.  Here  they  found  shelter  and  assistance  in 
Bemfleet  and  other  places,  Mdiich  had  become  little 
better  than  nests  of  heathen  pirates,  without  any 
7* 


154  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

hindrance,  if  not  with  the  open  sanction,  of  the 
ex-viking,  now  Christian  king  of  East  Anglia. 
Alfred's  patience  is  now  fairly  exhausted,  and,  re- 
solved to  give  his  faithless  ally  a  severe  lesson,  he 
gathere  a  tieet  at  once  in  the  jNIedway,  puts  troops 
on  board,  and  sends  them  after  the  last  division  of 
the  invaders,  with  orders  to  retaliate,  or,  as  Asser 
puts  it,  "  for  the  sake  of  plunder."  The  AVest  Saxon 
fleet  soon  fell  in  with  sixteen  Danish  vessels,  fol- 
lowed them  up  the  Stour,  and,  after  a  hard  fight, 
took  the  wliole  of  them,  and  put  the  crews  to  the 
sword.  Had  the  King  himself  been  on  board,  the 
success  would  most  likely  have  been  complete.  As 
it  was,  the  pirate  communities  of  the  East  Anglian 
coast  hastily  got  together  another  Heet,  with  which 
they  attacked  the  King's  fleet  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  "  while  they  were  reposing,"  and  gained  some 
advantage  over  them. 

The  Saxon  Chronicle  and  Asser  both  add  to  the 
occurrences  of  the  year  that  "  the  army  wdiich  dwelt 
in  East  Anglia  disgracefully  broke  the  peace  which 
they  had  concluded  with  King  Alired."  Dr.  Pauli 
also  notices  a  visit  of  Rollo  to  East  Anglia  at  this 
same  time,  the  great  viking  having  quitted  the  siege 
of  Paris  to  answer  the  summons  of  his  old  conn-ade 
in  arms.  But  the  English  chroniclers  are  silent  on 
the  .subject,  and  it  would  seem  that  the  cloud  passed 
away  without  further  hostilities.  Alfred  had  every 
reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  first  trial  and  j^roof 
of  his  reorganized  fleet  and  army,  and  had  read  the 
people  of  the  East  Anglian  coast  a  lesson  which 
they  would  not  lightly  forget.  Guthrum  Athelstan, 
for  his  part,  may  have  either  repented  of  his  bad 


THE    KINGS    WAR    OFFICE   AND    ADMIRALTY.     155 

faith,  ami  resolved  to  amend  and  live  quietly,  as  we 
may  hope,  or  had  come  to  the  conclusion,  alone  or 
in  consultation  with  KoUo,  that  tliere  is  nothing  hut 
sure  and  speedy  defeat  to  be  gained  by  an  open  rup- 
ture with  Alfred.  In  any  case  lie  took  no  active 
step  to  avenge  the  invasion  of  his  kingdom,  or  to 
retaliate,  and  from  that  time  lived  peaceably  to  the 
day  of  his  death  in  890. 

"  A  Prince,  then,"  says  Machiavelli(cap.  xiv.), "  is 
to  have  no  other  design,  nor  thought,  nor  study  but 
war  and  the  arts  and  disciplines  thereof :  for  indeed 
this  is  the  only  possession  worthy  of  a  prince,  and 
is  of  so  much  importance  that  it  not  only  preserves 
those  that  are  born  princes  in  their  patrimonies,  but 
advances  men  of  private  condition  to  that  honorable 
degree."  To  which  saying  those  who  least  admire 
the  great  Italian  will  agree  to  this  extent,  that  the 
arts  and  disciplines  of  war  should  form  the  main 
object  of  a  prince's  study  until  he  has  made  his 
country  as  safe  against  foreign  attack  as  it  can  be 
made  without  dwarfing  the  nation's  life.  This  is 
what  Alfred  did  for  his  kingdom  and  people,  be- 
tween the  peace  of  Wedmore  and  the  autumn  of 
885.  His  reward  was  profound  peace  for  eight 
more  years. 


154  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

hindrance,  if  not  with  the  open  sanction,  of  the 
ex-viking,  now  Christian  king  of  East  Anglia. 
Alfred's  patience  is  now  fairly  exhausted,  and,  re- 
solved to  give  his  faithless  ally  a  severe  lesson,  he 
gathers  a  tieet  at  once  in  the  ^Medway,  puts  troops 
on  board,  and  sends  them  after  the  last  division  of 
the  invaders,  with  orders  to  retaliate,  or,  as  Asser 
puts  it,  "  for  the  sake  of  plunder."  The  West  Saxon 
fleet  soon  fell  in  with  sixteen  Danish  vessels,  fol- 
lowed them  up  the  Stour,  and,  after  a  hard  fight, 
took  the  wliole  of  them,  and  put  the  crews  to  the 
sword.  Had  the  King  himself  been  on  board,  the 
success  would  most  likely  have  been  complete.  As 
it  was,  the  pirate  communities  of  the  East  Anglian 
coast  hastily  got  together  another  fleet,  with  which 
they  attacked  the  King's  fleet  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  "  while  they  were  reposing,"  and  gained  some 
advantage  over  them. 

The  Saxon  Chronicle  and  Asser  both  add  to  the 
occurrences  of  the  year  that  "  the  army  which  dwelt 
in  East  Anglia  disgracefully  broke  the  peace  which 
they  had  concluded  with  King  Alfred."  Dr.  Pauli 
also  notices  a  visit  of  Eollo  to  East  Anglia  at  this 
same  time,  the  great  viking  having  quitted  the  siege 
of  Paris  to  answer  the  summons  of  his  old  comrade 
in  arms.  But  the  English  chroniclers  are  silent  on 
the  subject,  and  it  would  seem  that  the  cloud  passed 
away  without  further  hostilities.  Alfred  had  every 
reason  to  be  satisfied  with  the  fii-st  trial  and  proof 
of  his  reorganized  fleet  and  army,  and  had  read  the 
people  of  the  East  Anglian  coast  a  lesson  which 
they  would  not  lightly  forget.  Guthrum  Athelstan, 
for  his  part,  may  have  either  repented  of  his  bad 


THE    KlNr.'s    WAR   OFFICE   AND    ADMIRALTY.     155 

faith,  and  resolved  to  amend  and  live  quietly,  as  we 
may  hope,  or  had  come  to  the  conclusion,  alone  or 
in  consultation  with  Kollo,  that  there  is  nothing  l)ut 
sure  and  speedy  defeat  to  he  gained  by  an  o[)en  rup- 
ture with  Alfred.  In  any  case  he  took  no  active 
step  to  avenge  the  invasion  of  his  kingdom,  or  to 
retaliate,  and  from  that  time  lived  peaceably  to  the 
day  of  his  death  in  890. 

"  A  Prince,  then,"  says  Mach ia veil i  (cap.  xiv.), "  is 
to  have  no  other  design,  nor  thought,  nor  study  but 
war  and  the  arts  and  disciplines  thereof:  for  indeed 
this  is  the  only  possession  worthy  of  a  prince,  and 
is  of  so  much  importance  that  it  not  only  preserves 
those  that  are  born  princes  in  their  patrimonies,  but 
advances  men  of  private  condition  to  tliat  honorable 
degree."  To  which  saying  those  who  least  admire 
the  great  Italian  will  agree  to  this  extent,  that  the 
arts  and  disciplines  of  war  should  form  the  main 
object  of  a  prince's  study  until  he  has  made  his 
country  as  safe  against  foreign  attack  as  it  can  be 
made  without  dwarfing  the  nation's  life.  This  is 
what  Alfred  did  for  his  kingdom  and  people,  be- 
tween, the  peace  of  Wedmore  and  the  autumn  of 
885.  His  reward  was  profound  peace  for  eight 
more  years. 


156  LIFE   OF  ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 

THE  king's   laws. 

"Give  the  king  thy  judgments,  0   God,  and  thy  righteousness  unto 

the  king's  son.. 
"  Then  sliall  he  judge  thy  people  according  to  the  right,  and  defend 

the  poor." 

THE  King's  next  work  after  putting  his  king- 
dom in  a  state  of  defence,  and  to  the  best  of 
his  abihty  insuring  his  people  a  safe  countiy  to 
live  in,  is  to  give  them  laws  for  the  ordering  and 
governing  of  their  lives. 

This  business  of  laying  down  rules  as  to  how  his 
English  people  shall  be  governed  seems  one  of  alto- 
gether startling  solemnity  and  importance  to  Alfred  ; 
and  is,  indeed,  not  a  business  which  it  is  desirable 
that  any  king,  or  parliament,  or  other  persons  or 
bodies,  should  undertake  lightly.  It  would  be  in- 
structive to  inquire  carefully  how  much  of  the 
trouble  and  misery  which  has  come  upon  the  land 
since  his  time  has  been  caused  by  the  want  of  Al- 
fred's spirit  in  this  matter  of  law-making.  "NVe  liave 
had  at  one  time  or  another,  during  the  past  thou- 
sand years,  as  terrible  experience  as  most  nations 
of  what  strong  men,  or  strong  classes  of  men,  can 
do  in  the  way  of  making  laws  to  assert  their  own 
wills.  The  laws  imposing  all  sorts  of  religious  dis- 
abilities, the  combination  laws,  the  corn  laws,  are 
only  some  of  the  best  known  instances  of  attempts 


THE  king's  laws.  157 

in  this  direction.  The  Statute-book  is  not  yet  clear 
of  them,  and  who  can  hope  that  we  have  seen  their 
end,  though  just  at  present  there  is  happily  no  class 
strong  enough  to  impose  its  own  will  on  the  nation  ? 
Our  sins  just  now  in  this  matter  of  law-makiug  are 
rather  those  of  indifference  or  cowardice.  Hand- 
to-mouth  legislation,  as  it  has  been  called,  —  a  de- 
sire to  ride  off  on  side  issues,  not  to  meet  our  diffi- 
culties faiily  in  the  face,  but  rather  to  do  such 
temporary  tinkering  as  will  just  tide  over  the  im- 
mediate crisis,  —  is  our  temptation. 

Here,  indeed,  in  our  law-making,  as  in  all  other 
departments  of  human  life,  the  loss  of  faith  in  God 
is  bearing  its  fruit,  and  taking  all  nerve  and  tone 
out  of  our  system.  For  that  loss  must  be  fatal  to 
all  high  ideal,  and  without  a  high  ideal  no  people 
will  ever  have  or  make  good  laws.  Alfred  has  left 
us  no  doubt  as  to  his.  There  is  an  order  laid  down 
from  everlasting  for  the  government  of  mankind,  so 
he  believes,  which  is  the  expression  of  the  will  of 
God,  and  to  which  man  has  to  conform.  He  him- 
self finds  it  about  his  path,  and  about  his  bed,  estab- 
lished already  on  every  side  of  him.  He  has  become 
aware  of  it  gradually,  by  the  experience  of  his  own 
life,  through  his  own  failures  and  successes.  He  has 
been  educated  by  these  into  tlie  knowledge  that  he, 
the  King,  is  himself  under  a  government,  even  the 
government  of  Him  whose  laws  the  material  universe, 
all  created  things,  obey,  but  whose  highest  empire  is 
in  the  hearts  and  wills  of  men.  Euling  and  making 
laws  are  no  light  matter  to  one  who  has  made  this 
discovery ;  he  can  exercise  neither  function  accord- 
ing to  his  own  pleasure  or  caprice,  or  for  his  own 


158        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

ends.  His  one  aim  as  a  law-maker  must  be  to 
recognize  and  declare  those  eternal  laws  of  God,  — 
as  a  ruler,  to  bring  his  own  life,  and  that  of  his 
people,  into  accordance  with  them. 

Coming,  then,  to  this  task  with  this  view,  we  find 
Alfred's  code,  or  "Alfred's  dooms,"  as  they  are  called, 
starting  with  an  almost  liteml  transcript  of  the  Deca- 
logue. The  only  variations  of  any  moment  are,  that 
the  second  commandment  is  omitted  in  its  right 
place,  and  stands  as  the  tenth  (in  the  words  of  the 
23d  verse  of  the  20th  of  Exodus),  "  Work  not  thou 
for  thyself  golden  gods  or  silver,"  and  that  in  the 
fourth  the  Saxon  text  runs,  "In  six  days  Christ 
wrought  the  heavens  and  earth  and  all  shapen 
things  that  in  them  are,  and  rested  on  the  seventh 
day  :  and  for  that  the  Lord  hallowed  it."  The  sub- 
stitution of  Christ  for  the  Lord  here  is  characteristic 
of  the  King.  Immediately  after  tlie  ten  command- 
ments come  selections  from  the  ^Mosaic  code,  chiefly 
from  the  21st,  22d,  and  23d  chapters  of  Exodus,  very 
slightly  modified. 

The  most  important  variations  are  as  follow :  — 

ExoDrs  XXI.  Alfued'.s  Dooms. 

1.  Now  these  are  the  jiulg-  11.  These  are  the  dooms  that 
nients  which  thou  shalt  set  be-  thou  shalt  set  them  :  If  any 
fore  them.  one  buy  a  Christian  bondsman, 

2.  If  thou  buy  a  Hebrew  ser-  be  he  bondsman  to  him  six 
vaut,  six  years  he  shall  serve,  years,  the  .seventh  be  he  free 
and  in  the  seventh  he  shall  go  unboiight.  With  such  clothes 
out  free  for  nothing.  as  he  went  in,  with  siich  go  he 

3.  If  he  came  in  by  himself,  out.  If  he  himself  have  a  wife, 
he  shall  go  out  by  himself :  if  go  she  out  with  him.  If,  liow- 
he  were  married,  then  his  wife  ever,  the  lord  gave  him  a  wife, 
shall  go  out  with  him.  go  she  and  her  bairn  the  lord's. 

4.  If  his  master  have  given  If  then  the  bondsman  say,  I 


THE   KINGS   LAWS. 


159 


will  not  go  from  my  lord,  nor 
from  my  wife,  nor  from  my 
bairn,  nor  from  my  goods,  let 
then  his  lord  bring  him  to  the 
ehureh  door,  and  drill  through 
his  ear  with  an  awl,  to  witness 
that  he  be  ever  thenceforth  a 
bondsman. 


him  a  wife,  and  she  have  bom 
him  sons  or  daughters  ;  the  wife 
and  her  ihildrcn  shall  be  her 
master's,  and  he  shall  go  out 
by  himself. 

5.  And  if  the  servant  shall 
plainly  say,  1  love  my  master, 
my  wife,  and  my  children  ;  I 
will  not  go  out  free : 

G.  Then  his  master  shall  bring 
him  unto  the  judges  ;  he  shall 
also  bring  him  unto  the  door, 
or  unto  the  door-post,  and  his 
master  shall  bore  his  ear  through 
with  an  awl,  and  he  shall  serve 
him  forever. 

Tlie  dooms  continue  an  almost  literal  transcript 
of  the  21st  cliapter  of  Exodus,  with-  the  exception 
of  the  17th  verse,  which  is  omitted.  The  slight 
modifications  of  the  Hebrew  Law  in  the  first  verses 
of  the  22d  chapter  are  again  characteristic. 


Exodus  xxii. 

1.  If  a  man  shall  steal  an  ox 
or  a  sheep  and  kill  it,  or  sell  it, 
he  shall  restore  live  oxen  for  an 
ox,  and  four  sheep  for  a  sheep. 

2.  If  a  thief  be  found  break- 
ing up,  and  be  smitten  that  he 
die,  there  shall  no  blood  be  .shed 
for  liim. 

3.  If  the  sun  be  risen  upon 
him,  there  shall  be  blood  shed 
for  hhn  ;  for  he  should  make 
full  restitution ;  if  he  have 
nothing,  then  shall  he  be  sold 
for  his  theft. 

4.  If  the  theft  be  certainly 
found  in  his  hand  alive,  whether 
it  be  ox,  or  ass,  or  sheep,  he 
shall  restore  double. 


Alfred's  Dooms. 

24.  If  any  man  steal  another's 
ox,  and  .slay  or  sell  him,  give  he 
two  for  it,  and  four  sheep  for 
one.  If  he  have  not  what  he 
may  give,  be  he  himself  sold  for 
the  fee. 

25.  If  a  thief  break  a  man's 
house  by  night  and  be  there 
slain,  be  he  not  guilty  of  man- 
slaughter. If  he  doeth  this 
after  sunrise  he  is  guilty  of 
manslaughter,  and  himself  shall 
die,  unless  he  did  it  of  neces- 
sity. If  with  him  be  found 
alive  what  he  before  stole,  let 
him  pay  for  it  twofold. 

26.  If  any  man  harm  another 
man's   vineyard,   his  acres,    or 


162  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

they  to  God.  While  they  all  together  were,  they 
send  errand-doers  to  Antioch,  and  to  Syria,  Christ's 
law  to  teach.  When  they  understood  that  they 
sped  not,  then  sent  they  an  errand-writing  to  them." 
Then  follows  verbatim  James's  epistle  from  the  Jeru- 
salem council  to  the  Church  at  Antioch  ;  after  wliich 
Alfred  again  goes  on  :  "  I'hat  ye  will  that  other  men 
do  not  to  you,  do  ye  not  that  to  other  men.  From 
this  one  doom  a  man  may  think  that  he  should 
doom  every  one  rightly ;  he  need  keep  no  other 
doom-book.  Let  him  take  heed  that  he  doom  to 
no  man  that  he  would  not  that  he  doom  to  him,  if 
he  sought  doom  over  him." 

So  far  it  would  seem  that  the  King  has  no  doubt, 
or  need  of  consultation  with  any  one.  These  are, 
in  his  Adew,  the  dooms  which  the  Almighty  God 
himself  has  given  to  the  king  and  people  of  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  to  the  Hebrews  of  old.  The  re- 
maining dooms  stand  on  difterent  ground.  They 
are  such  as  have  been  ordained  by  his  forefathers 
and  their  wise  men,  with  such  additions  and  varia- 
tions as  he  and  his  wise  men  approve.  They  are 
introduced  thus :  — 

"  Since  that  time  it  happened  that  many  nations 
took  to  Christ's  faith,  and  there  were  many  synods 
through  all  the  middle  earth  gathered,  and  eke 
throughout  the  English  race  they  took  to  Christ's 
faith  through  holy  bishops  and  other  wise  men. 
They  then  set  forth,  for  their  mild-heart^dness,  that 
Christ  taught  as  to  almost  every  misdeed,  that  the 
worldly  lords  might,  with  their  leave,  without  sin, 
for  the  first  guilt,  take  their  fee  boot  which  they 
then  appointed,  except  for  treason  against  a  lord,  to 


THK   king's    laws.  163 

which  they  durst  not  declare  any  niild-hearteduess, 
for  tliat  the  Ahnighty  God  doomed  none  to  them 
tliat  slighted  him,  nor  Christ,  God's  Son,  doomed 
none  to  him  that  sold  him  to  death,  and  he  bade  to 
love  a  lord  as  himself."  Nevertheless,  Alfred  and 
his  witan,  by  the  4th  article  of  their  code,  modify 
this  of  tlie  synods,  and  place  the  king  and  lords  on 
the  same  footing  as  other  freemen,  by  recognizing 
the  king's  and  lords'  were-gild.  "  Tliey  then,"  the 
preface  goes  on,  "  in  many  synods  set  a  boot,  for 
many  misdeeds  of  men ;  and  in  many  books  they 
wrote  here  one  doom,  there  another." 

"  I  then,  Alfred  the  King,  gathered  these  togetlier 
and  bade  to  write  many  of  these  that  our  fore- 
fatliei's  held,  those  tliat  to  me  seemed  good :  and 
many  of  those  that  seemed  not  good  I  set  aside  with 
my  witan's  council,  and  in  other  wise  bade  to  hold 
them ;  for  that  I  durst  not  venture  much  of  mine 
own  to  set  in  writing,  for  that  it  was  unknown  to 
me  what  of  this  would  be  acceptable  to  those  that 
came  after  us.  But  those  that  I  met  with,  either 
in  my  kinsman  Ina's  days,  or  in  Offa's,  king  of 
Mercia,  or  in  Ethelbryte's,  that  first  of  the  English 
race  took  baptism,  those  that  seemed  to  me  the 
Tightest  I  gathered  them  herein,  and  let  the  others 
alone.  I  then,  Alfred,  King  of  the  West  Saxons, 
showed  these  to  all  my  witan,  and  they  tben  said 
that  they  all  seemed  good  to  them  to  hold." 

Then  follow  the  collected  dooms,  approved  by 
Alfred  and  his  witan,  from  other  sources,  and  "  Ina's 
dooms  "  by  themselves,  at  the  end  of  the  code.  We 
liave  only  room  for  a  few  of  those  which  best  illus- 
trate the  habits  and  society  of  the  time. 


162  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

they  to  God.  While  they  all  together  were,  they 
send  errand-doers  to  Antioch,  and  to  Syria,  Christ's 
law  to  teach.  When  they  understood  that  they 
sped  not,  then  sent  they  an  errand-writing  to  them." 
Then  follows  vcrhatiiii  James's  epistle  from  the  Jeru- 
salem council  to  the  Church  at  Antioch  ;  after  which 
Alfred  again  goes  on :  "  That  ye  will  that  other  men 
do  not  to  you,  do  ye  not  that  to  other  men.  From 
this  one  doom  a  man  may  think  tliat  he  should 
doom  every  one  rightly ;  he  need  keep  no  other 
doom-book.  Let  him  take  heed  that  he  doom  to 
no  man  that  he  would  not  that  he  doom  to  him,  if 
he  sought  doom  over  him." 

So  far  it  would  seem  that  the  King  has  no  doubt, 
or  need  of  consultation  with  any  one.  These  are, 
in  his  view,  the  dooms  which  the  Almighty  God 
himself  has  given  to  the  king  and  people  of  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  to  the  Hebrews  of  old.  The  re- 
maining dooms  stand  on  different  ground.  They 
are  such  as  have  been  ordained  by  his  forefathers 
and  their  wise  men,  with  such  additions  and  varia- 
tions as  he  and  his  wise  men  approve.  They  are 
introduced  thus :  — 

"  Since  that  time  it  happened  that  many  nations 
took  to  Christ's  faith,  and  there  were  many  synods 
through  all  the  middle  earth  gathered,  and  eke 
throughout  the  English  race  they  took  to  Christ's 
faith  through  holy  bishops  and  other  wise  men. 
They  then  set  forth,  for  their  mild-heartedness,  that 
Christ  taught  as  to  almost  every  misdeed,  that  the 
worldly  lords  might,  with  their  leave,  without  sin, 
for  the  first  guilt,  take  their  fee  boot  which  they 
then  appointed,  except  for  treason  against  a  lord,  to 


THK    KINGS    LAWS.  163 

which  they  durst  not  declare  any  mild-heartedness, 
for  that  the  Ahuighty  God  doomed  none  to  them 
tliat  slighted  him,  nor  Christ,  God's  Son,  doomed 
none  to  him  that  sold  him  to  death,  and  he  bade  to 
love  a  lord  as  himself."  Nevertheless,  Alfred  and 
his  witan,  by  the  4th  article  of  their  code,  modify 
this  of  the  synods,  and  place  the  king  and  lords  on 
the  same  footing  as  other  freemen,  by  recognizing 
the  king's  and  lords'  were-gild.  "  They  then,"  the 
preface  goes  on,  "  in  many  synods  set  a  boot-  for 
many  misdeeds  of  men ;  and  in  many  books  they 
wrote  here  one  doom,  there  another." 

"  I  then,  Alfred  the  King,  gathered  these  together 
and  bade  to  write  many  of  these  that  our  fore- 
fathers held,  those  tliat  to  me  seemed  good :  and 
many  of  those  that  seemed  not  good  I  set  aside  with 
my  witan's  council,  and  in  other  wise  bade  to  hold 
them ;  for  that  I  durst  not  venture  much  of  mine 
own  to  set  in  writing,  for  that  it  was  unknown  to 
me  what  of  this  would  be  acceptable  to  those  that 
came  after  us.  But  those  that  I  met  with,  either 
in  my  kinsman  Ina's  days,  or  in  Offa's,  king  of 
Mercia,  or  in  Ethelbryte's,  that  first  of  the  English 
race  took  baptism,  those  that  seemed  to  me  the 
Tightest  I  gathered  them  herein,  and  let  the  others 
alone.  I  then,  Alfred,  King  of  the  West  Saxons, 
showed  these  to  all  my  witan,  and  they  tlien  said 
that  they  all  seemed  good  to  them  to  hold." 

Tlien  follow  the  collected  dooms,  approved  liy 
Alfred  and  his  witan,  from  other  sources,  and  "  Ina's 
dooms  "  by  themsehes, at  the  end  of  the  code.  We 
have  only  room  for  a  few  of  those  which  best  illus- 
trate the  habits  and  society  of  the  time. 


164  LIFE   OF   ALFIJKD   THK   GREAT. 

OF   OATHS   AXD   OF   PLEDGES. 

"  It  is  most  needful  that  every  man  warily  hold 
his  oath  and  his  pledge.  If  any  man  is  forced  to 
either  of  these  in  wrong,  either  to  treachery  against 
a  lord,  or  other  unright  help,  it  is  better  to  belie 
than  to  fulfil.  If  he,  however,  pledge  what  it  is 
right  for  him  to  fulfil,  and  belie  that,  let  him  give 
with  lowly-mindedness  his  weapon  and  his  goods 
to  his  friends  to  hold,  and  be  forty  nights  in  prison 
in  -a  king's  town,  and  suffer  there  as  the  bishop 
assigns  him ;  and  let  his  kinsmen  feed  him  if  lie 
himself  have  no  meat.  If  he  have  no  kinsmen,  or 
no  food,  let  the  king's  reeve  feed  him.  If  one  should 
compel  him,  and  he  else  will  not,  if  they  bind  him 
let  him  forfeit  his  weapons  and  inheritance.  If  one 
slay  him,  let  him  lye  without  amends.  If  he  flee  out 
ere  the  time,  and  one  take  him,  let  him  be  forty 
nights  in  prison,  as  he  should  at  first.  If,  however, 
he  escape,  let  him  be  looked  on  as  a  runaway,  and 
be  excommunicate  of  all  Christ's  churches.  If, 
however,  another  man  be  his  surety,  let  him  make 
boot  for  the  breach  of  suretyship  as  the  law  may 
direct,  and  for  the  pledge-breaking  as  his  confessor 
may  shrive  him." 

It  is  in  this  doom  that  imprisonment  is  first  men- 
tioned in  the  Saxon  laws.  The  doom  for  treason  to 
which  Alfred  refers  in  his  preface  as  the  unpardon- 
able sin,  and  which  in  fact  modifies  that  startling 
assertion,  is, 

OF  TREACHERY  AGAINST  A  LORD. 

"If  any  one  is  treacherous  about  the  king's  life 
by  himself,  or  by  protecting  outlaws  or  their  men, 


THE   K1^"G'6   LAWS.  165 

be  he  liable  in  his  life,  and  in  all  that  he  owns.  If 
he  will  prove  himself  true,  let  him  do  it  by  the 
king's  were-gild.  In  like  manner  we  also  appoint 
for  all  ranks,  both  churl  and  earl.  He  that  is 
treacherous  about  his  lord's  life,  be  he  liable  in  his 
life  and  all  that  he  owns,  or  by  his  lord's  were  prove 
him  true. 

Sanctuary  in  churches  is  carefully  regulated,  and 
"  church-frith  "  established  ;  that  is  to  say,  if  a  man 
seek  sanctuary  for  any  crime  which  has  not  come  to 
light,  and  confess  it  in  God's  name,  "  be  it  half  for- 
given." 

The  settlement  of  the  boot  for  offences  against 
women  form  a  prominent  part  of  the  code.  From 
one  of  these  dooms  (8)  it  would  seem  that  a  nun 
might  be  married  with  the  leave  of  the  king  or  the 
bishop,  as  a  fine  of  120  shillings  (lialf  to  go  to  the 
king,  and  half  to  the  bishop  and  the  lord  of  the  con- 
vent) is  inflicted  for  taking  her  without  such  leave. 

The  care  which  our  forefathers  took  to  enforce 
the  responsibility  of  the  several  sections  of  society 
for  their  individual  members,  may  be  well  illus- 
trated by  the  dooms  as  to  "  kinless  men."  "  If  a 
man  kinless  of  father's  kin  fight,  and  slay  a  man, 
then  if  he  have  mother's  kin,  let  them  find  a  third 
of  the  were,  his  guild  brethren  a  third,  and  for  a 
third  let  him  flee.  If  he  have  no  mother's  kin,  let 
his  guild  brethren  pay  half,  and  for  haK  let  him  flee. 
If  a  man  slay  a  kinless  man,  let  half  his  were  be 
paid  to  the  king,  half  to  his  guild  brethren." 

The  scale  by  which  the  difterent  classes  of  society 
were  assessed  may  be  gathered  from  the  doom  for 
housebreaking  (40),  by  which  burglary  in  the  king's 


166  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

house  is  fixed  at  one  hundred  and  twenty  shillings, 
in  an  archbishop's  ninety  shillings,  a  bishop's  or 
alderman's  sixty  shillings,  a  twelve  hynde  man's 
thirty  shillings,  a  six  hynde  man's  fifteen  shillings, 
a  churl's  five  shillings ;  the  boot  being  in  each  in- 
stance double  if  the  offence  is  committed  "while 
the  army  is  out,"  or  during  Lent.  In  laws  of  ear- 
lier date  the  same  penalties  had  been  fixed  for  of- 
fences against  the  king  and  against  bishops.  Now 
the  king  lias  established  his  supremacy  in  every  way. 

It  has  been  said  that  Alfred  and  his  witan  first 
established  a  system  of  entail  in  England.  There 
is  no  foundation  for  this  statement  except  the  doom, 
that  if  a  man  have  inherited  book-land  "  he  must 
not  give  it  from  his  kin,  if  there  be  writing  or  wit- 
ness that  it  was  forbidden  by  those  that  first  gained 
it "  ;  a  somewhat  slender  ground  for  the  theory. 

But  the  strangest  glimpse  which  we  get  through 
these  laws  of  the  state  of  society  of  a  thousand 
years  since  is  in  the  doom  as  to  feuds.  It  is  too 
long  to  quote,  but  in  substance  amounts  to  this  :  a 
man  who  has  a  feud  with  another  may  not  fight 
him,  if  he  finds  him  at  home,  without  first  demand- 
ing right  of  him ;  even  then,  he  may  not  fight  him 
for  seven  days  if  he  will  remain  within.  If  he 
come  upon  him  abroad  unawares,  he  may  fight  him 
if  he  will  not  give  up  his  M'eapons  ;  if  he  will,  then 
he  must  "  hold  him  thirty  nights  and  Avarji  his 
friends  of  him"  (probably  that  they  may  ransom 
him,  but  this  is  not  stated).  A  man  may  fight  for 
his  lord,  and  a  lord  for  his  man,  without  feud.  He 
may  also  fight  for  his  born  kinsman  without  feud, 
except  against  his  lord,  "  that  we  allow  not."     He 


THE  king's  laws.  167 

may  also  without  feud  fight  any  man  whom  he  finds 
insulting  his  wife,  daughter,  sister,  or  mother. 

Holidays,  or  Massday  Festivals,  are  provided  for 
all  freemen ;  twelve  days  at  Yule,  "  and  the  day 
that  Christ  overcame  the  devil,  and  St.  Gregory's 
day  (probably  because  of  Alfred's  reverence  for  Pope 
Gregory),  and  a  fortnight  at  Easter,  St.  Peter's  and 
St.  Paul's  days,"  in  harvest  the  fuU  week  before  St. 
Mary's  mass,  All-Hallows  day,  and  four  Wednes- 
days in  the  four  Ember  weeks.  Serfs  or  "  theow 
men,"  however,  do  not  fare  so  well,  being  left  to 
"  whatever  any  man  give  them  for  God's  name." 

No  less  than  thirty-three  dooms  are  given  up  to 
the  valuing  of  wounds  of  all  kinds,  the  boots  rang- 
ing from  two  shillings  for  a  finger-nail,  to  eighty 
shillings  for  an  arm,  and  one  hundred  shillings  for 
tlie  tendons  of  the  neck.  A  man  guilty  of  slander 
shall  lose  his  tongue,  or  pay  full  were-gild. 

Amongst  the  dooms  of  "  Ina  my  kinsman,"  which 
are  appended  to  Alfred's,  we  may  note  that  as  to 
working  on  Sundays.  If  a  theow  work  on  Sunday 
by  his  lord's  order,  the  lord  must  pay  thirty  shil- 
lings for  wite ;  if  without  his  lord's  order,  "  let  him 
pay  hide  gild,"  or,  in  other  words,  be  flogged.  If  a 
ireeman  work  without  his  lord's  order,  he  must  for- 
feit his  freedom,  or  pay  sixty  shillings,  and  a  priest 
must  forfeit  double. 

A  chance  of  escape  is  left,  however,  for  the  theow 
who  has  become  liable  to  "  hide  gild "  under  tlie 
doom  on  "  Church  scots  " :  "  If  any  man  forfeit  his 
hide  and  run  into  a  church,  let  the  swingeing  (whip- 
ping) be  forgiven  him." 

For  the  protection  of  forests  it  is  enacted,  that  if 


168  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE   GKEAT. 

any  man  burn  a  tree  in  a  wood  and  it  be  found  out, 
"let  him  pay  full  wite  of  sixty  shillings,  hecaiise  fire 
is  a  thief" ;  but,  if  any  one  fell  many  trees  in  a 
wood,  "  let  him  pay  for  three  trees,  each  with  tliirty 
sliillings.  He  need  not  pay  for  more  of  them,  how- 
ever many  there  might  be,  because  the  axe  is  an  in- 
former, not  a  thief.  But  if  any  one  cut  down  a  tree 
under  which  thirty  swine  may  stand,  let  him  pay 
sixty  shillings  wite. 

The  doom  against  lurking  in  secret  places,  already 
noticed,  is  re-enacted  in  a  modified  form  :  if  any  far- 
coming  man,  or  stranger,  journey  through  a  wood 
out  of  the  highway,  and  neither  shout  nor  blow 
horn,  he  may  be  slain. 

By  such  dooms,  then,  did  the  King  and  his  witan 
endeavor  to  weld  into  the  every-day  life  of  a  rude 
people,  accustomed  to  settle  all  disputes  and  diffi- 
culties by  free  fighting,  that  one  governing  doom  of 
the  whole  code,  "  That  ye  will  that  other  men  do 
not  to  you,  do  ye  not  that  to  other  men."  It  may 
be  impossible  to  suppress  a  smile  at  the  strange 
company  in  which  the  golden  rule  finds  itself  in  the 
code  of  Alfred  and  his  wise  men.  The  task  was  by 
no  means  an  easy  one,  and  they  have,  at  any  rate, 
the  credit  of  putting  it  distinctly  forward  and  doing 
their  best  upon  it.  Have  any  of  our  law-makers  from 
that  time  to  this  aimed  at  a  higher  ideal,  or  worked 
it  out  more  honestly  according  to  their  lights  ?  If  so, 
let  them  cast  the  first  stone  at  "  Alfred's  dooms." 

Mr.  Thoi-pe  supposes  that  the  same  code,  with  the 
dooms  of  Offa,  instead  of  those  of  Ina,  appended, 
was  passed  by  the  witan  of  Mercia,  and  put  in'  force 
in  that  country.  The  code  was  also  modified  for 
the  new  Danish  kingdom  of  East  Andia. 


THE  king's  justice.  169 


CHAPTER    XV. 

THE  king's  justice. 

"  And  he  set  judges  in  the  land,  throughout  all  the  fenced  cities,  city 
by  city,  and  s.iid  to  them,  Tiike  heed  what  ye  do:  for  ye  judge  not 
for  man,  but  for  the  Lord,  and  he  is  with  you  in  the  judgment." 

THE  one  special  characteristic  of  Englishmen  (in- 
dubitable and  indisputable  till  of  late),  reverence 
for  law  and  the  constable's  staff,  if  it  had  ever  taken 
root  at  all  in  the  country  before  Alfred's  time,  had 
disappeared  during  the  life-and-death  struggle  with 
the  Northmen.  Wlien  "  the  army  "  left  Mercia,  and 
went  to  settle  in  tlieir  own  country,  the  state  of 
things  which  they  left  behind  them  in  Wessex  was 
lawless  to  the  last  degree.  The  severe  penalties 
provided  in  Alfred's  laws  for  brawling  in  the  king's 
hall,  or  before  aldermen  in  the  mote,  for  disturbing 
the  folk-mote  by  weapon  drawing,  for  fighting  in 
the  houses  of  freemen  or  churls,  show  w^hat  a  pass 
things  had  come  to. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  clear  that  this 
readiness  to  appeal  to  the  strong  hand  on  all  occa- 
sions was  not  altogether  without  justification,  for 
the  ordinary  tribunals  were  fallen  into  utter  disre- 
pute, scarcely  even  attempting  to  do  justice  between 
man  and  man.  The  aldermen  of  the  shires,  lieredi- 
tary  rulers,  responsible  indeed  to  the  King,  but  for 
most  practical  purposes  independent,  were  the  chief 
judges,  as  well  as  the  chief  executive  officers,  of  tho 
8 


170  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE  GREAT. 

kingdom.  They  had  systeinatically  neglected,  and 
so  had  become  utterly  incompetent  to  fulfil,  their 
judicial  duties.  There  was  scarcely  an  alderman 
who  could  read  the  text  of  the  written  laws  in  his 
own  language,  or  who  had  any  but  the  most  super- 
ficial acquaintance  with  the  common  law,  which 
was  even  then  a  precious  inheritance  of  the  tribes 
of  the  great  German  stock.  These  judicial  duties  had 
consequently  fallen  into  the  hands  of  their  servants, 
"  vice-domini,"  and  other  inferior  officers.  How 
these  and  others  carried  matters,  and  what  sort  of 
justice  the  people  got  under  them,  we  may  conjec- 
ture from  the  statement  in  Andrew  Home's  "  Miroir 
des  Justices,"  that  Alfred  had  to  liang  forty-four  of 
them  for  scandalous  conduct  on  the  judgment-seat. 
One  Cadwine  was  thus  hanged,  becaiise  on  the  trial 
of  Hachwy  for  his  life  he  first  put  himself  on  the 
jury,  and  then,  when  three  of  the  jury  were  still 
for  finding  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  removed  these 
and  substituted  three  others,  against  whom  he  gave 
Hachwy  no  right  of  challenge,  and  sentenced  him 
to  death  on  their  verdict.  Another,  Freberne,  was 
hanged  for  sentencing  Harpin  to  death  when  the 
jury  were  in  doubt,  and  would  not  find  a  verdict  of 
guilty ;  and  Segnar,  because  he  condemned  Elfe  to 
death  after  he  had  been  acquitted.  Dr.  Pauli  and 
others  have  doubted  this  evidence,  deeming  such 
measures  absolutely  inconsistent  with  Alfred's  char- 
acter, and  it  is  certainly  difficult  to  believe  that  he 
would  have  so  punished'  men  for  mistakes,  as  is  the 
case  with  some  of  the  forty-four  cases  cited  in  the 
"  Aliroir  des  Justices."  But  I  own  it  seems  to  me 
that  Cadwine  and  Freberne   most  thoroughly   de- 


THE   king's   justice.  171 

served  hanging,  and  that  Alfred  was  just  the  king  to 
have  given  them  their  deserts.  Unfortunately,  the 
treatise  wliich  he  is  said  to  have  ■\n-itteu  "  against 
unjust  judges,"  and  his  "reports  of  cases  in  his 
time"  {acta  inagisiratiim  suorum),  which  were  extant, 
it  seems,  in  Edward  IV.'s  reign,  are  lost.  We  can 
get  no  nearer  the  truth,  therefore,  on  this  particular 
question,  but  have  the  best  evidence  as  to  the 
thorough  reform  which  he  introduced  in  the  whole 
administration  of  justice. 

The  first  and  most  important  of  his  reforms  was, 
the  severance  of  the  executive  and  judicial  func- 
tions. But  even  this  step  was  taken  without  haste, 
or  injustice  of  any  kind.  It  was  only  after  patient 
sifting,  and  very  gradually,  that  the  aldermen  and 
earls  were  superseded.  The  hard-handed,  trucident, 
old  warriors,  who  had  stood  so  stoutly  by  him 
through  many  a  hard  day's  fighting,  were  dear  to 
the  King,  and  were  treated  by  him  with  the  utmost 
consideration.  He  would  give  the  chiefs  who  had 
led  men  at  Ashdown  and  Wilton  and  f^thandune 
every  chance ;  would  spend  himself  in  the  effort  to 
make  them  equal  to  their  duties ;  would  allow  them 
to  do  anything,  except  injustice  to  God's  poor,  and 
his.  For,  as  Asser  testifies,  "  he  showed  himself  a 
minute  investigator  of  the  truth  in  all  his  judg- 
ments, and  this  especially  for  the  sake  of  the  poor, 
to  whose  interests,  day  and  night,  among  other 
duties  of  this  life,  he  was  ever  wonderfully  atten- 
tive. For  in  the  whole  kingdom  the  poor  beside 
him  had  few  or  no  protectors.  For  all  the  powerful 
and  noble  men  of  the  nation  had  turned  their 
thoughts  to  worldly  rather  than  to  heavenl}'  things. 


172  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE  GREAT. 

and  each  was  bent  more  on  his  own  profit  than  on 
the  public  good." 

There  is,  in  the  same  author,  a  very  characteristic 
account  of  Alfred's  endeavor  to  educate  his  alder- 
men and  earls  as  judges,  which  is  for  us  full  of 
humor,  almost  reaching  pathos.  Alfred,  in  all  the 
early  years  of  his  reign,  was  in  the  habit  of  inquir- 
ing "  into  almost  all  the  judgments  which  were 
given  in  his  absence  throughout  all  his  realm, 
whether  they  were  just  or  unjust.  If  he  perceived 
there  was  iniquity  in  those  judgments,  he  would 
summon  the  judges,  either  himself,  or  through  his 
faithful  servants,  and  ask  them  mildly  why  they 
had  judged  so  unjustly,  —  whether  through  igno- 
rance or  malevolence,  whetlier  for  the  \o\e  or  fear  of 
any,  or  hatred  of  others,  or,  also,  for  the  desire  for 
money."  What  happened  in  the  latter  case  Asser 
does  not  tell  us,  but  the  "  Miroir  des  Justices  "  may 
suggest.  If,  however,  "  tlie  judges  acknowledged 
that  they  had  given  such  judgments  because  they 
knew  no  better,  he  would  discreetly  and  moderately 
reprove  their  inexperience  and  folly  in  such  words 
as  these  :  '  I  wonder,  truly,  at  your  rasliness,  that, 
whereas  by  God's  favor  and  mine  you  have  occu- 
pied the  rank  and  office  of  the  wise,  you  have 
neglected  the  studies  and  labors  of  the  wise. 
Either,  therefore,  at  once  give  up  the  discharge  of 
these  duties  which  you  hold,  or  endeavor  more 
zealously  to  study  the  lessons  of  wisdom.  Such 
are  my  commands.'  At  these  words,  the  aldermen, 
earls,  and  prefects  would  tremble,  and  endea%or  to 
turn  all  tlieir  thoughts  to  the  study  of  justice ;  so 
that,  wonderful  to  say,  almost  all  his  earls,  prefects, 


THE  king's  justice.  173 

and  officers,  though  unlearned  fiom  their  cradles, 
were  sedulously,  bent  on  acquiring  learning,  choos- 
ing rather  laboriously  to  acquire  tlie  knowledge  of  a 
new  discipline  than  to  resign  their  functions.  But 
if  any  one  of  them,  from  old  age  or  slowness  of 
mind,  were  unable  to  make  progress  in  liberal 
studies,  the  King  commanded  his  son,  if  he  had  one, 
or  one  of  his  kinsmen,  or,  if  there  were  no  other 
person  to  be  had,  one  of  his  own  freedmen  or  ser- 
vants whom  he  had  before  advanced  to  the  office  of 
reading,  to  recite  Saxon  books  before  him  day  and 
night,  whenever  he  had  any  leisure.  Then  these 
men  would  lament,  with  deep  sighs  in  their  inmost 
hearts,  that  in  their  youth  they  had  never  attended 
to  such  studies,  and  would  bless  the  young  men  of 
our  days  wiio  happily  could  be  instructed  in  the 
liberal  arts,  while  they  would  execrate  their  own 
lot  that  they  had  not  learned  these  things  in  their 
youth,  and  now,  when  they  are  old,  though  willing 
to  learn  them,  they  are  unable." 

Tlie  stout  old  warriors,  "  sedulously  bent  on  ac- 
quiring learning,"  there  in  the  Engbnd  of  a  thou- 
sand years  ago,  with  one  of  the  King's  young  freed- 
men, —  a  kind  of  pupil-teacher,  not  without  a  dash 
of  priggishness,  we  may  fancy,  —  reading  to  each  of 
the  most  stolid  of  them,  day  and  night,  so  that  they 
can  scarcely  eat  or  sleep  in  peace !  Before  Bishop 
Asser,  no  doubt,  they  only  "  lamented  with  deep 
sighs,"  and  "  l)lessed  the  young  men  of  our  day ! " 
Those  who  have  ever  attended  one  of  the  schools 
started  near  some  great  railway  work  in  our  time 
for  the  navigators,  may  get  some  idea  of  the  toil  of 
those  ancient  aldermen,  earls,  prefects,  and  officers 


174  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

of  Alfred's.  There  is  something  very  tt)uching  iu 
the  struggle  of  a  great  strong  man  over  his  primer, 
and  the  blotted  pot-hooks  which  he  slowly  stumps 
out  on  a  tormented  copy-book  witli  his  huge,  horny 
hand.  The  aldermen  generally,  let  us  hope,  came 
soon  to  the  conclusion  that  presiding  in  courts  oi" 
justice  was  not  their  true  function.  In  any  case  it 
seems  certain  that  Alfred  effectually  separated  tlie 
judicial  and  executive  duties  of  his  officers,  and 
appointed  a  set  of  judges  whose  functions  coincided 
to  some  extent  with  those  of  our  judges  of  assize ; 
officers  who  were  sent  through  the  shires  to  see  that 
justice  was  being  done,  and  to  overhaul  and  report 
on  the  decisions  of  the  county  courts. 

But  when  his  new  system  had  been  established 
a  heavy  burden  still  lay  on  the  King.  The  old,  dis- 
orderly habits  were  not  to  be  shaken  off  at  once. 
The  suitors  often  "  perversely  quarrelled  in  the 
courts  of  his  earls  and  officers,  to  such  an  extent 
that  hardly  any  one  of  them  would  admit  the  justice 
of  what  had  been  decided  by  the  earls  and  prefects, 
and,  in  consequence  of  this  pertinacious  and  obsti- 
nate dissension,  all  desired  to  have  the  judgment  of 
the  King,  and  both  sides  strove  at  once  to  gratify 
this  desire."  Thus  it  was  in  suits  where  both  plain- 
tiff and  defendant  believed  in  their  own  case.  "  But 
if  any  one  was  conscious  of  injustice  on  his  side  in 
a  suit,  though  by  law  or  agreement  he  were  com- 
pelled to  go  before  the  King,  yet  with  his  own 
good-will  he  never  Avould  consent  to  go.  For  he 
knew  that  in  the  King's  presence  no  part  of  his 
A\Tong  would  be  hidden,  and  no  wonder,  for  the 
King   was    a    most    acute    investigator  when   ap- 


THE  king's  justice.  175 

pealed  to  to  pass  sentence,  as  he  was  in  all  other 
things." 

But  reform  in  his  law  courts  was  only  a  small 
portion  of  Alfred's  work.  The  old  framework  of 
society  had  been  rudely  shaken,  and  nothing  short 
of  a  thorough  reorganization  would  restore  peace 
and  order,  and  give  his  new  courts  and  officers  a  fair 
chance.  Accordingly  the  King  set  to  work  on  tlie 
same  principle  as  had  guided  him  in  his  law  re- 
forms. He  has  a  strong  conservative  reverence  for 
that  which  his  forefathers  have  established,  and  will 
preserve  it  wherever  possible.  Thus  he  accepts  the 
division  of  the  kingdom  into  shires,  which  has  some- 
times been  attributed  to  him,  but  which,  it  is  cer- 
tain,  was  much  older  than  his  day ;  but  the  boun- 
daries of  shires,  hitherto  uncertain,  and  varying  from 
time  to  time,  are  now  laid  down  precisely,  after  a 
general  survey  of  the  country,  upon  which  it  has 
been  supposed  that  Domesday-book  was  founded. 
This  survey  was  engrossed  and  kept  at  Winchester, 
and  called  the  Roll  of  Winchester.  By  it  the  shires, 
and  their  subdivisions  of  hundreds  or  wapentakes, 
were  carefully  set  out,  much  as  they  remain  to  this 
day,  as  territorial  divisions.  Alfred  gave  each  hun- 
dred its  court,  and  there  seems  reason  to  believe 
that  from  this  court  of  the  hundred  the  first  appeal 
lay  to  a  court  of  the  "  trvthing,"  a  district  composed 
of  several  hundreds.  There  were  generally,  it  is 
said,  three  trythings  in  every  county,  of  which 
traces  still  remain  in  the  three  ridings  of  Yorkshire, 
the  lathes  of  Kent,  and  the  three  districts  of  Lin- 
colnshire, Lindesey,  Kesteven,  and  Holland.  The 
evidence,  however,  as  to  these  "  trythings  "  is  weak. 


176  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

and  does  not  affect  any  shire  in  W  essex  proper,  the 
old  West  Saxon  kingdom.  The  ]uindreds  again  he 
subdivided  into  ty things,  each  of  which  Avas  repre- 
sented by  a  head-borough,  or  chief  man  of  the 
tything. 

Every  English  householder  then  who  claimed  to 
be  a  "  liege  man,"  or  one  who  was  living  according 
to  law,  was  a  member  of  a  tything,  and  of  a  hun- 
dred, if  livmg  in  the  country,  or  of  a  guild  if  living 
in  a  town ;  and  householders  had  to  keep  "  house- 
hold rolls  "  of  their  servants.  Thus,  in  one  way  or 
another,  every  man  was  recognized,  caught  hold  of 
by  the  law,  and  taught  his  duties  and  obligations  as 
a  citizen.  If  there  were  a  man  who  belonged  to  no 
hundred,  tything,  or  guild,  and  w^hose  name  was  on 
no  household  roll,  he,  it  seems,  would  be  held  an 
outlaw  and  common  enemy,  w^hose  life  and  goods 
were  at  the  mercy  of  any  one  who  chose  to  take 
them,  or,  in  the  expressive  phrase  of  the  time,  he 
"  wore  the  wolf's  head." 

Under  this  framework  of  hundreds  and  ty  things 
a  stringent  system  of  suretyship  was  established. 
Thus  if  a  crime  were  committed  within  a  tything, 
the  head-borough  had  to  undertake  at  once  for  the 
production  of  the  criminal.  If  he  escaped,  the 
tything  had  a  certain  number  of  days  given  them, 
within  which  he  must  be  produced  for  trial.  If 
they  could  not  produce  him,  the  tything  had  yet  a 
way  of  clearing  themselves.  If  the  head-borough 
and  two  "chief  pledges,"  or  leading  men  of  the 
tything  in  which  the  offence  had  been  committed, 
could  get  the  head-borough  and  two  chief  pledges 
of  the   three    neighboring  tythings  —  twelve  good 


THE  king's  justice.  177 

men  in  all  —  to  join  with  them  in  swearing  that,  in 
their  conscience,  the  tything  was  innocent  of  any 
knowledge  of,  or  privity  with,  the  crime  or  the 
flight,  tlie  society  was  cleared.  Otherwise  the  tyth- 
ing had  to  pay  the  fine  awarded  by  law  for  the 
offence.  This  might  be  levied  in  the  first  instance 
on  the  goods  of  the  culprit,  but,  on  failure  of  these, 
the  balance  had  to  be  made  up  by  a  levy  on  the 
whole  tything.  Besides  this,  every  member  of  the 
tything  had  to  clear  himself  by  oath  of  any  privity 
with  the  fault  or  flight,  and  to  swear  that  he  would 
bring  the  culprit  to  trial  whenever  he  could  find 
him. 

The  liability  of  a  householder  to  answer  for  any- 
stranger  who  might  stop  at  his  house  has  already 
been  noticed.  If  such  a  stranger,  merchant,  or 
wayfaring  man,  came  to  be  suspected  of  any  crime 
and  could  not  be  found,  he  whose  guest  he  had  last 
been  was  summoned  to  account  for  him.  If  he  had 
not  entertained  the  stranger  for  more  than  two 
nights,  he  might  clear  himself  by  oath ;  but  if  the 
stranger  had  lodged  with  him  three  niglits,  he  was 
bound  to  produce  him,  or  answer,  and  pay  "  were- 
gild,"  or  "wite,"  for  him,  as  for  one  of  his  own 
family. 

This  mutual  liability,  or  suretyship,  was  the  pivot 
of  all  Alfred's  administrative  reforms.  It  was  an 
old  system  known  by  the  common  name  of  frank- 
pledge, but  now  new  life  was  put  into  it  by  the 
King,  and  in  a  short  time  it  worked  a  very  remark- 
able change  in  the  whole  of  his  kingdom.  Mer- 
chants and  othei-s  could  go  about  their  affairs  with- 
out guards  of  armed  men.    The  forests  were  emptied- 


178  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

of  their  outlaws,  kinless  men,  and  Danes,  and  left 
to  the  neat-herds  and  swine-herds  and  their  charges. 
Confidence  and  security  succeeded  to  the  distrust 
and  lawlessness  which  had  threatened  the  realm 
with  hopeless  anarchy  at  the  end  of  the  great  war. 
Later  chroniclei-s,  such  as  Ingulf  and  Malmesbury, 
have  preserved  the  stories  which  the  English  people 
used  fondly  to  tell  of  the  state  of  their  country  in 
the  time  of  their  hero  king  :  how  virgins  might 
travel  without  fear  of  insult  from  one  end  of  Eng- 
land to  the  other  *  how  if  a  wayfarer  left  his  money 
all  night  on  the  highway,  he  might  come  next  day 
and  be  sure  of  finding  it  untouched ;  how  the  King 
himself  tried  the  experiment  of  hanging  up  gold 
bracelets  at  cross-roads,  and  no  man  wished,  or 
dared,  to  lay  hands  on  them.  The  like  stories  had 
been  current  in  earlier  times  of  King  Edwin,  and 
were  also  told  of  Normandy  under  the  rule  of  Eollo 
in  these  same  years.  We  need  not  attach  any 
undue  weight  to  them,  but  the  fact  remains  on 
e^^dence,  which  has  been  allowed  to  be  trustworthy 
by  competent  students  of  all  schools,  that  within 
the  lives  of  one  generation  Alfred  converted  the 
West  Saxons  from  a  lawless,  brawling  race  of  semi- 
barbarians  into  a  peaceable  and  law-abiding  nation. 
This  frank-pledge  system,  which  was  worked  in 
the  country  districts  through  the  local  divisions  of 
tythings  and  hundreds,  was  -worked  in  the  towns 
by  the  machinery  of  the  guilds.  There  is  no  more 
interesting  piece  of  social  history  than  this  of  the 
Saxon  guilds,  but  it  is  quite  beyond  our  province 
here  to  touch  upon  it.  All  we  are  concerned  with 
is  the  guild  amongst  the  "West  Saxons  at  this  pre- 


THE  king's  justice.  179 

cise  period.  They  were  institutions  combining  the 
objects  of  benefit  clubs,  insurance  societies,  and 
trades-unions.  As  a  rule  they  were  limited  to 
members  of  one  trade  or  callinij  or  at  least  to 
members  of  the  same  class  of  society ;  for  there 
were  guilds  of  priests  and  thanes,  as  well  as  guilds 
of  weavers  and  masons.  The  insurance  extended 
to  mutual  support  and  maintenance  during  life,  and 
to  the  costs  of  burial  and  of  masses  for  the  soul 
after  death.  This  was  the  organization  which  the 
system  of  frank-pledge  laid  hold  of,  and  probably 
developed,  for  the  guilds  in  the  times  nearer  the 
Xorman  Conquest  had  extended  so  as  sometimes  to 
embrace  all  the  citizens  of  a  town  in  one  society. 
Whatever  the  size  of  the  guild  might  be,  the  king's 
officer,  the  town  reeve,  looked  to  the  officers  of  the 
guild  in  his  town,  as  the  shire  reeve  looked  to  the 
head-borough  of  the  tything  in  the  county,  for  the 
production  of  offenders  and  the  payment  of  were 
and  wite.  The  political  education  of  the  whole 
people  was  thus  carried  on  in  shire  and  town, 
though  the  right  of  every  freeman  to  attend  the 
Great  Council  had  necessarily  fallen  into  abey- 
ance. The  result  is  well  summed  up  by  Mr. 
Pearson :  — 

"  AVhat  is  essential  to  remember  is,  that  life  and 
property  were  not  secured  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  by 
tlie  State,  but  by  the  loyal  union  of  his  free  fellow- 
citizens  :  that  honor  and  courage  were  expected  from 
neighbors,  as  readily  as  amongst  ourselves  from  the 
police,  and  that  free  co-operation  secured  the  weak 
from  tlie  strong,  provided  for  the  destitute  and 
orphan,  and  mitigated  the   ruinous   losses  against 


180  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

which  no  care  can  provide.  The  system  may  have 
been  —  must  have  been  —  imperfect  in  its  Avork- 
ings.  But  the  question  is  not  one  merely  of  ma- 
terial results :  it  is  rather  of  moral  education,  and  I 
believe  the  Saxon  guilds  are  unmatched  in  the  his- 
tory of  their  times,  as  evidences  of  self-reliance, 
of  mutual  trust,  of  patient  self-restraint,  and  of 
orderly  love  of  law  among  a  young  people."  * 

The  laws  or  customs  of  frank -pledge,  enforced  by 
courts-leet  in  every  hundred,  were  undoubtedly  Mdiat 
are  now  called  heroic  remedies.  That  they  inter- 
fered with  the  individual  freedom  of  the  subjects 
of  the  king  in  a  very  real  sense  it  is  impossible  to 
deny,  but  it  is  equally  tnie  that  they  did  most  ef- 
fectually the  work  which  they  were  meant  to  do, 
which  I  take  to  be  the  real  test  of  remedial  meas- 
ures, heroic  or  humdrum. 

Sir  John  Spelman,  looking  round  him  at  the  con- 
fusions of  the  England  of  his  day,  mourns  over  the 
disuse  of  the  courts-leet  and  the  institution  of 
frank-pledges,  which  used  to  be  "  the  A\hole  and 
sole  administration  of  justice  criminal  which  was  in 
the  kingdom."  "  Had  they  been  continued  in 
practice,"  the  old  knight  thinks,  "  according  to  their 
ancient  usage,  they  had  been  to  this  day  not  un- 
profitable to  the  commonwealth.  For  instance,  the 
continual  trouble  and  contention  that  is  daily  raised 
between  town  and  town  about  the  settling  of  people 
chai^eable,  or  feared  to  be  chargeable ;  the  universal 

*  Pearson's  "  History  of  Ensfland  during  Early  and  Middle  Ages," 
Vol.  L  p.  276.  I  am  glad  to  take  this  opportniiity  of  again  owning  my 
great  obligations  to  tliis  work.  The  chapters  xvi.  to  xx.  are  quite 
invaluable  studies  of  England  and  the  English  during  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period. 


THE    KINGS    JLSTiCi:.  181 

complaint  of  the  licentiousness  and  unruliness  of 
servants,  who  (for  the  liberty  they  now  have  of 
changing  at  their  pleasure)  will  stay  in  no  place, 
nor  serve,  but  upon  such  conditions  as  to  work  and 
wages  as  is  grievous  to  masters,  and  gives  trouble 
to  all  the  justices  in  the  kingdom  to  regidate ;  the 
pester  and  annoyance  of  tlie  kingdom  with  such  a 
surcharge  of  vagrant  and  disorderly  persons,  that 
more  and  more  nowadays  abound,  and  many  other 
such-like  inconveniences,  had  all  been  avoided  or 
in  great  part  remedied  by  the  observance  of  the  law 
of  frank-pledge."  Still  he  owns  that,  in  a  common- 
wealth so  increased  as  it  was  in  his  day,  it  would 
be  in  vain  to  attempt  to  bring  it  back.  In  an  age 
of  electric  telegraphs  and  railways  it  would  seem  at 
first  sight  scarcely  worth  while  to  dwell  upon  it  at 
all.  At  the  same  time,  unless  the  world  is  essen- 
tially different  from  the  world  in  which  Alfred  lived 
and  reigned,  and  men  and  women  are  neither  the 
children  of,  nor  kin  to,  the  men  and  women  over 
whom  he  ruled,  —  which  we  have  no  reason  for 
believing,  —  there  must  be  something  answering,  or 
analogous,  to  this  custom  or  institution  of  frank- 
pledge, which  we  might  be  all  the  better  for  get- 
ting at.  Alfred  had  his  problems  of  anarcliy,  wide- 
spread lawlessness,  terrorism,  to  meet.  After  the 
best  thought  he  could  give  to  the  business,  lie  met 
them  just  tluis,  and  prevailed.  Like  diseases  call 
for  like  cures ;  and  we  may  assume  without  fear 
that  a  remedy  wliich  has  been  very  successful  in 
one  age  is  at  least  worth  looking  at  in  another. 

We  too,  like  Alfred,  have  our  own  troubles,  —  our 
Und-questions,  labor-questions,  steady  increase   of 


182  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

pauperism,  and  others.  In  our  struggle  for  life  we 
fight  with  different  weapons,  and  have  our  ad- 
vantages of  one  kind  or  another  over  our  ancestors ; 
but  when  all  is  said  and  done  there  is  scarcely 
more  coherence  in  the  English  nation  of  1869,  than 
in  that  of  1079.  Individualism,  no  doubt,  lias  its 
noble  side ;  and  "  every  man  for  himself "  is  a  law 
which  works  wonders  ;  but  we  cannot  shut  our  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  under  their  action  English  life  has 
become  more  and  more  disjointed,  threatening  in 
some  directions  altogetlier  to  fall  to  pieces.  AVhat 
we  specially  want  is  something  which  shall  bind 
us  more  closely  together.  Every  nation  of  Christen- 
dom is  feeling  after  the  same  thing.  The  need  of 
getting  done  in  some  form  that  which  frank-pledge 
did  for  Alfred's  people  expresses  itself  in  Germany 
in  mutual-credit  banks,  open  to  every  honest  citizen  ; 
in  France,  in  the  productive  associations  of  all 
kinds ;  at  home  in  our  co-operative  movement,  and 
trades-unions. 

No  mere  machinery,  nothing  that  governments 
or  legislatures  can  do  in  our  day,  will  be  of  mucli 
help,  but  they  may  be  great  hindrances.  The  study 
of  the  modern  statesman  must  be  how  to  give  such 
movements  full  scope  and  a  fair  chance,  so  that  the 
people  may  be  able  wuthout  let  or  hindrance  to 
work  out  in  their  own  way  the  principle  which 
Alfred  brought  practically  home  to  his  England, 
that  in  human  societ}'^  men  cannot  divest  themselves 
of  responsibility  for  their  neighbors,  and  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  to  attempt  it. 

To  recapitulate,  then,  shortly,  —  the  reforms  which 
the  King  effected  in  the  administration  of  justice, 


THE   KINGS   JUSTICE.  183 

and  what  we  may  fairly  call  the  resettlement  of  the 
countn',  were  almost  all  adaptations  or  develop- 
ments of  what  he  found  when  he  came  to  the 
throne.  The  old  divisions  of  shires  were  carefully 
readjusted  and  divided  into  hundreds  and  tythings. 
The  alderman  of  the  shire  .still  remained  the  chief 
officer,  but  the  office  was  no  longer  hereditary.  The 
King  appointed  the  alderman,  or  earl,  of  the  shire, 
who  was  called  the  "  king's  alderman,"  or  "  comes." 
He  was  president  of  tlie  shire  gemot  or  council,  and 
•chief  judge  of  the  county  court,  as  well  as  governor 
of  the  shire,  but  was  assisted,  and  probably  con- 
trolled, in  his  judicial  capacity,  by  justices  appointed 
by  the  King,  and  not  attached  to  the  shire  or  in 
any  way  dependent  on  the  aldeiinan.  The  officers 
called  in  the  Chronicles  "  vice-domini,"  who  had 
come  to  be  simply  the  servants  and  nominees  of  the 
alderman,  exercising  indifferently  judicial  and  ex- 
ecutive functions,  were  abolished,  and  one  officer 
substituted  for  them,  the  reeve  of  the  shire,  or 
sheriff.  The  sheriff  was  the  king's  officer,  who  car- 
ried out  the  decrees  of  the  court,  levied  the  were-- 
gild  and  other  fines,  and  had  generally  the  duty  of 
seeing  that  the  king's  justice  was  promptly  and 
properly  executed,  but  had  no  judicial  functions 
whatever.  The  hundreds  and  tythings  were  repre- 
sented by  their  own  officers,  and  had  their  own 
hundred-courts,  and  courts-leet.  These  courts  seem 
to  have  had  some  trifling  criminal  jurisdiction,  but 
were  chiefly  assemblies  answering  more,  to  our  grand 
juries,  and  parish  vestries.  All  householders  were 
members  of  them,  and  every  man  thus  became 
directly  responsible   for  keeping  the  king's  peaca 


184  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

Through  their  officers  —  "  head-boroughs,"  "  bors- 
holders,"  or  by  whatever  other  name  they  went  — 
offenders  were  apprehended,  fines  levied,  the  army 
recruited  :  in  sliort,  the  whole  civil  business  of  the 
country  transacted.  A  simple  but  effective  organi- 
zation for  a  commonwealth  in  the  condition  of  the 
England  of  the  ninth  century,  as  was  abundantly 
proved  by  the  immediate  results.  The  fact  that 
much  of  it  remains  to  our  own  day  shows  that  it 
had  worth  in  it  for  other  and  dififerent  times. 


THE  king's  exchequek.  185 


CHAPTEE   XVI. 

THE    king's    exchequer. 

"  He  becometh  poor  that  dealeth  with  a  slack  band,  but  tbe  band  of 

the  diligent  maketh  rich. 
"  Let  thy  fountains  be  dispersed  abroad,  and  rivers  of  waters  in  tbe 

streets. 
"  The  liberal  soul  shall  be  made  fat,  and  he  that  watereth  shall  be 
watered  also  himself." 

OF  all  the  difficult  questions  which  meet  the 
student  of  King  Alfred's  life  and  times,  there 
is  none  more  puzzling  than  this  of  his  exchequer. 
We  liave  already  passed  in  review  a  portion  of  the 
work  which  he  managed  to  perform,  and  much  yet 
remains  for  us  to  glance  at.  We  know  that  he  re- 
built the  fortresses,  created  a  navy  composed  of  ships 
of  a  more  costly  kind  than  had  yet  been  in  use,  and 
reorganized  his  army  so  as  constantly  to  have  one 
third  of  the  freemen  capable  of  carrying  arms  ready 
for  immediate  service,  and  on  full  pay.  Our  own 
experience  tells  us  that  these  are  three  as  costly 
undertakings  as  any  which  a  reforming  king  could 
take  in  hand.  "Where,  then,  did  the  necessary  funds 
come  from  ? 

The  rebuilding  of  fortresses,  and  marching  against 
an  enemy  in  the  field,  were  indeed,  as  we  have  seen, 
two  of  the  three  duties  to  which  all  land  granted 
to  individuals  was  subject ;  but  this  rule  would 
scarcely  seem  to  have  included  such  fortresses  as 


186  LIFE    OF    ALFKKD    THE    GREAT. 

were  royal  property.  These,  which  were  undoubt- 
edly very  numerous,  the  King  probably  rebuilt  at 
his  own  cliarges.  In  the  same  way,  the  military 
service  which  freemen  were  bound  to  render  did 
not  include  garrison  duty,  or  the  three  months' 
yearly  training  under  arms,  which  Alfred  enforced 
after  the  first  great  invasion  of  "NVessex.  The  re- 
construction of  the  fleet,  too,  was  an  unusual  ex- 
pense, which  must  probably  have  fallen  on  tlie 
King  almost  exclusively.  Mr.  Pearson  says,  "  The 
church,  the  army,  the  fleet,  the  police,  the  poor-rates, 
the  walls,  bridges,  and  highAvays  of  the  country, 
were  all  local  expenses,  defrayed  by  tithes,  by  per- 
sonal service,  or  by  contributions  among  the  guilds." 
But  this  statement  can  scarcely  refer  to  so  early  a 
time  as  the  ninth  century  ;  and  Alfred's  own  words, 
and  the  last  and  most  authentic  portion  of  Asser's 
life,  lead  to  the  inference  that  much  of  the  military 
cost  of  all  kinds  was  borne  by  the  King  himself. 
To  the  outlay  for  these  purposes,  we  must  add  the 
maintenance  of  his  court,  in  a  style  of  magnificence 
quite  unusual  before  his  time ;  the  payment  of  the 
army  of  skilled  artificers  which  he  collected,  and  of 
his  civil  officers  and  ministers ;  the  entertainment 
of  strangers  ;  his  foreign  embassies  ;  his  schools,  the 
ecclesiastical  establishments  which  he  founded,  en- 
dowed, or  assisted ;  and  the  relief  of  the  poor.  These 
must  have  amounted  to  very  large  sums  annually ; 
while  we  should  have  expected  that  the  sources  of 
the  King's  wealth  would  have  been  almost  dried  up 
by  the  long  and  devastating  wars.  Allred  indeed 
himself  states,  in  the  preamble  to  his  will,  that  he 
and  his  family  had  been  despoiled  of  great  part  of 


Tin:   KINGS    EXCHEQUER.  187 

their  wealth  "  by  the  heathen  folk."  The  fact,  how- 
ever, remains,  that  all  these  things  were  done  out  of 
the  King's  revenues,  and  there  is  no  hint  in  chronicler, 
or  law,  or  charter,  that  he  ever  oppressed  his  people 
by  any  sucli  exactions,  legal  or  illegal,  as  have  gen- 
erally been  enforced  by  magnificent  mouarchs,  from 
Solomon  downwards. 

To  meet  this  expenditure,  the  King's  income  was 
derived  from  three  sources :  public  revenue,  crown 
lands,  and  his  private  property.  The  public  revenue 
arose  from  several  sources,  amongst  which  we  may 
reckon  probably  dues  in  the  mature  of  customs,  pay- 
able by  merchants  at  the  several  ports  of  the  king- 
dom, and  tolls  payable  by  persons  tmding  at  the 
king's  markets,  though  the  authentic  notices  of  tlie 
payment  of  any  such  in  Alfred's  time  are  very 
meagre.  Then  the  king  succeeded  to  the  lands  of 
those  who  died  kiuless,  and  probably  to  their  goods 
if  they  were  intestate.  Treasure-trove  also  belonged 
to  him.  But  far  more  important  than  these  must 
have  been  the  revenue  derived  from  the  were-gild, 
and  other  fines  imposed  by  the  laws  for  damage  to 
pereon  and  property. 

The  care  with  which  these  "  boots  "  are  fixed  in 
Alfred's  laws,  in  which  the  details  of  the  compen- 
sations awarded  in  such  cases  occupy  the  greater  part 
of  the  code,  would  indicate  the  revenue  from  them 
to  have  been  considerable.  It  will  have  been  largest 
too  at  the  time  when  it  was  most  needed,  in  the 
first  years  of  peace,  before  the  old  violent  habits  of 
the  people  had  given  way  under  the  even  and  strong 
administration  of  the  King.  But  even  of  this  rev- 
enue the  King  only  got  a  portion.     For  instance, 


188  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   CHEAT. 

« 

the  were-gild,  or  compensation  for  manslaughter, 
was  (it  seems)  divisible  into  three  portions :  the 
first  part  only,  or  "  frith-boot,"  was  paid  to  tlie  King 
for  the  breach  of  his  peace ;  the  second  part,  or 
"  man-boot,"  went  to  tlie  lord  as  compensation  for 
the  loss  of  his  man ;  where  the  dead  man  had  no 
lord,  or  was  a  foreigner,  two  thirds  went  to  the 
King  :  the  third  part,  called  "  mag  "  (or  tribe)  boot, 
or  "  em-gild  "  was  paid  to  the  dead  man's  family,  as 
compensation  for  the  injury  caused  to  them  by  his 
loss.  Of  the  remaining  boots,  it  is  probable  that 
the  King  got  a  less  sliare  of  those  inflicted  for  in- 
juries to  the  person  not  ending  fatally,  as  the  claim 
of  the  sufferer  in  such  cases  would  be  paramount  to 
any  other ;  while  of  those  inflicted  for  such  offences 
as  perjury,  slander,  brawling,  he  would  probably 
take  the  greater  part.  Still,  on  the  most  extrava- 
gant estimate,  the  income  arising  from  all  these 
sources  must  have  been  very  trifling  wlien  com- 
pared with  the  royal  outgoings. 

The  crown  lands  proper  were,  no  doubt,  of  con- 
siderable extent  and  value,  but  there  is  little  evi- 
dence to  show  of  what  they  consisted.  Eeading, 
Dene,  and  Leonaford  are  royal  burghs  mentioned 
in  the  Clironicles  which  are  not  included  amongst 
Alfred's  devises,  and  were  probably  crown  lands. 
Alfred's  own  lands  or  family  estates,  of  which  lie 
was  absolute  owner,  and  able  to  dispose  by  his  will, 
must  have  been  very  extensive.  He  had  estates  in 
every  shire  in  "Wessex,  except  that  portion  of  Glos- 
tershire  which  was  included  in  the  old  West  Saxon 
kingdom.  Perhaps,  however,  at  the  date  of  his  will, 
the  whole  of  Glostershire  misht  have  been  handed 


THE  king's  exchequer.  189 

over  to  Ethelred  the  Alderman  of  ^Mercia,  and  the 
royal  estates  there  given  as  part  of  Ethelswitha's 
dower.  The  royal  properties  lay  most  thickly  in 
Wilts,  Hants,  and  Somerset,  in  wiiicli  three  shires 
we  find  upwards  of  twenty  specified  in  the  will. 
Lands  in  Kent  and  Sussex  are  also  devised,  so  that 
there  was  no  part  of  the  new  kingdom  in  which 
Alfred  was  not  a  large  i)roprietor.  But  how  these 
lands  were  cultivated,  what  part  of  the  produce  was 
sold,  and  what  forwarded  in  kind  to  meet  the  con- 
sumption of  the  court,  and  of  that  host  of  soldiers 
and  mechanics  for  whom  the  King  undertook  to  find 
bread  and  meat  and  beer,  as  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  his  royal  functions,  there  is  no  evidence 
to  show. 

But  if  we  can  do  little  but  conjecture  more  or  less 
confidently  as  to  the  sources  or  amount  of  Alfred's 
revenue,  we  know  in  remarkable  detail  how  he  spent 
it,  from  the  account  given  in  what  Dr.  Pauli  and 
others  consider  the  most  authentic  part  of  Asser's 
life. 

The  good  bishop's  preamble  to  this  portion  of  his 
work  tells  liow  the  King,  after  the  building  and  en- 
dowing of  his  monasteries  at  Athelney  and  Shaftes- 
bury, began  to  consider  "  what  more  he  could  do  to 
augment  and  show  forth  his  piety.  That  which  he 
had  begun  wisely,  and  thoughtfully  conceived  for 
the  public  good,  he  adhered  to  with  equally  bene- 
ficial result,  for  he  liad  heard  it  out  of  the  book  of 
the  law  that  the  Lord  had  promised  to  restore  him 
tenfold,  and  he  knew  that  the  Lord  had  kept  his 
promise,  and  had  actually  restored  him  tenfold. 
Encouraged  by  which  example,  and  wishing  to  out- 


190  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

do  his  predecessors  in  such  matters,  lie  vowed  hum- 
bly and  faithfully  to  devote  to  God  half  his  ser- 
vices both  day  and  night,  and  also  half  of  all  his 
wealth,  such  as  lawfully  and  justly  came  annually 
into  his  possession.  And  this  vow,  as  far  as  human 
judgment  can  discern,  he  skilfully  and  wisely  en- 
deavored to  fulfil.  But  that  he  might,  with  his 
usual  caution,  avoid  that  which  Scripture  warns  us 
against,  *  if  you  offer  aright,  but  do  not  divide  aright, 
you  sin,'  he  considered  how  he  might  divide  aright 
that  which  he  had  vowed  to  God  ;  and  as  Solomon 
had  said,  'the  heart  or  counsel  of  the  king  is  in 
the  hand  of  God,'  he  ordered  with  wise  foresight, 
which  could  come  only  from  above,  that  his  officers 
should  first  divide  into  two  parts  the  revenues  of 
every  year.  When  this  division  was  made  he  as- 
signed the  first  half  to  worldly  uses,  and  ordered 
that  one  third  of  it  should  be  paid  to  his  soldiers, 
and  also  to  his  ministers  and  nobles  who  dwelt  at 
court,  where  they  discharged  divers  duties ;  for  so 
the  King's  household  was  arranged  at  all  times  into 
three  classes.  His  attendants  were  thus  wisely 
divided  into  three  companies,  so  that  the  first  com- 
pany should  be  on  duty  at  court  for  one  month, 
night  and  day,  at  the  end  of  which  time  they  re- 
turned to  their  homes  and  were  relieved  by  the 
second  company.  At  the  end  of  the  second  month, 
in  the  same  way,  the  third  company  relieved  the 
second,  who  returned  to  their  homes,  where  they 
spent  two  months,  until  their  turn  for  service  came 
again.  The  third  company  also  gave  place  to  the 
first,  in  the  same  way,  and  also  spent  two  months 
at  home.     Thus  was  the  threefold  division  of  the 


THE   king's   exchequer.  191 

companies  arranged  at  all  times  in  the  royal  house- 
bold.  To  these,  therefore,  was  paid  the  first  of  the 
three  portions,  to  each  according  to  their  respective 
dignities  and  services  ;  the  second  to  the  workmen 
whom  he  had  collected  from  every  nation,  and  had 
about  him  in  large  numbers,  men  skilled  in  every 
kind  of  construction ;  the  third  portion  was  as- 
signed to  foreigners,  who  came  to  him  out  of  every 
nation  lar  and  near  ;  whether  they  asked  money  of 
him  or  not  he  cheerfully  gave  to  each  with  wonder- 
ful munificence,  according  to  their  respective  merits, 
as  it  is  written,  '  God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver.'  " 

"  But  the  second  part  of  liis  revenues,  which  came 
yearly  into  his  possession,  and  was  included  in  the 
receipts  of  the  exchequer,  as  we  mentioned  above, 
ho  gave  with  ready  devotion  tc^  God,  ordering  his 
ministers  to  divide  it  carefully  into  four  parts.  The 
first  part  was  discreetly  bestowed  on  the  poor  of 
every  nation  that  came  to  him,  and  on  this  subject 
he  said  that,  as  far  as  human  judgment  could  guar- 
antee, the  advice  of  Pope  Gregory  should  be  fol- 
lowed, '  Give  not  much  to  whom  you  should  give 
little,  nor  little  to  whom  much,  nor  something  to 
whom  nothing,  nor  nothing  to  whom  something.' 
The  second  of  the  four  portions  was  given  to  the 
two  monasteries  which  he  had  built,  and  to  those 
who  therein  dedicated  themselves  to  God's  service. 
The  third  portion  was  assigned  to  the  schools  which 
he  had  studiously  collected  together,  consisting  of 
many  of  the  nobility  of  his  own  nation.  The 
fourth  portion  was  for  the  use  of  all  the  neighbor- 
ing monasteries  in  all  Saxony  and  ^lercia,  and  also 
during  some  years,  in  turn,  io  the  churches  and  ser- 


192  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

vants  of  God  dwelling  in  Britain,  Cornwall,  Gaul, 
Armorica,  Northumbria,  and  sometimes  also  in  Ire- 
land ;  according  to  his  means  he  either  distributed 
to  them  beforeliand,  or  afterwards,  if  life  and  suc- 
cess should  not  fail  him,"  meaning,  probably,  that 
the  King,  when  he  was  in  funds,  made  his  donations 
to  monasteries  at  the  beginning  of  the  financial 
year,  —  if  otherwise,  at  the  end. 

The  roundabout  way  in  which  the  old  churchman 
and  scholar  thus  puts  before  us  the  picture  of  his 
truth-loving  friend  and  king,  preaching  economy 
and  order  to  his  people  by  example,  brings  it  home 
to  us  better  than  any  modern  pararphrase.  Asser 
sees  the  good  work  going  on  under  his  eyes,  the 
orderly  and  wise  munificence,  and  the  well-regu- 
lated industry  of  tjie  King's  household,  giving  tone 
to-  all  the  households  in  the  realm  ;  nobles  and 
king's  thegns,  justices,  officers,  and  soldiers,  coming 
up  month  by  month,  and  returning  to  their  own 
shires,  wiser  and  braver  and  thriftier  men  for  their 
contact  with  the  wisest  and  bravest  and  thriftiest 
Englishman.  Everything  prospers  with  him  ;  for 
all  his  outlay,  Asser  sees  and  writes :  "  The  Lord 
has  restored  him  tenfold." 

Rulers  and  workers  the  like  of  this  king  are  in- 
deed apt  to  get  large  returns.  The  things  of  this 
world  acknowledge  their  master,  and  pour  into  his 
lap  full  measure,  heaped  up,  and  running  over.  But 
the  tenfold  return  brings  its  own  danger  with  it, 
and  too  often  the  visible  things  bind  the  strong 
man.  "  This  is  also  vanity,  yea,  it  is  a  sore  travail. 
....  When  goods  increase,  they  are  increased  that 
eat  them  ;  and  what  good  is  there  to  the  owners 


Tin:  king's  exchequeu.  103 

thereof  saving  the  beholding  of  them  witli  their 

eyes All  the  labor  of  man  is  for  his  mouth, 

and  yet  the  appetite  is  not  filled There  is  an 

evil  which  I  have  seen  under  the  sun,  and  it  is  com- 
mon among  men.  A  man  to  whom  God  hath  given 
riches,  wealth,  and  honor,  so  that  he  wanteth  noth- 
ing for  his  soul  of  all  that  he  desireth,  yet  God 
givetli  him  not  power  to  eat  thereof,  but  a  stranger 
eateth  it :  this  is  vanity,  and  it  is  an  evil  disease.'' 
So  mourns  the  wise  king  who  has  bowed  before  the 
"  tenfold  return,"  and  for  whom  his  wealth  has  be- 
come a  mere  dreary  burden. 

If  we  would  learn  how  the  Saxon  king  kept  the 
dominion  which  the  Hebrew  king  lost  over  the 
things  which  "tlie  Lord  was  restoring  him  tenfold,"* 
we  shall  perhaps  get  the  key  best  from  himself. 
"  Lord,"  Alfred  writes  in  his  Anglo-Saxon  adapta- 
tion from  St.  Augustine's  "  Blossom  Gatherings," 
"thou  who  hast  wrought  all  things  worthy,  and 
nothing  unworthy  ....  to  thee  I  call,  whom 
everything  loveth  that  can  love,  both  those  w^hich 
know  what  they  love,  and  those  which  know  not 
what  they  love :  thou  who  art  the  Father  of  that 
Son  who  has  awakened  and  yet  wakens  us  from  the 
sleep  of  our  sins,  and  warneth  us  that  we  come  to 
thee.  For  every  one  falls  who  flees  from  thee,  and 
every  one  rises  who  turns  to  thee,  and  every  one 
stands  who  abides  in  thee,  and  he  dies  who  alto- 
gether forsakes  thee,  and  he  quickens  who  comes  to 
thee,  and  he  lives  indeed  who  thoroughly  abides  in 
thee.  Thou  who  hast  given  us  the  power  that  we 
should  not  despond  in  any  toil,  nor  in  any  incon- 
venience, as  is  no  wonder,  for  thou  well  rulest,  and 
9  M      • 


l'J4  LiFi:  OF  ALFi;i;i'  riii:  (iiJK.vi. 

makest  us  well  serve  thee Thou  hast  well 

taught  us  that  we  may  understand  that  that  was 
strange  to  us  and  transitory  which  we  looked  on  as 
our  o\^^;l,  —  that  is,  worldly  wealth ;  and  thou  hast 
also  taught  us  to  understand  that  that  is  our  own 
which  we  looked  on  as  strange  to  us,  —  that  is,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  which  we  before  disregarded. 
Thou  who  hast  taught  us  that  we  should  do  naught 
unlawful  hast  also  taught  that  we  should  not  sorrow 

though  our  substance  waned  to  us Thou  hast 

loosed  us  from  the  thraldom  of  other  creatures,  and 
always  preparest  eternal  life  for  us,  and  preparest 

us  also  for  eternal  life Hear  me.  Lord,  thy 

servant !  Thee  alone  I  love  over  all  other  tilings  ! 
Thee  I  seek  !  Thee  I  follow  !  Thee  I  am  ready  to 
serve !  Under  thy  government  I  wish  to  abide,  for 
thou  alone  reignest." 

A  strange,  incomprehensible,  even  exasperating 
kind  of  man,  this  king,  to  the  temper  and  under- 
standing of  our  day,  which  resents  vehemently  the 
expression  of  any  such  faith  as  his.  How  often 
during  the  last  few  years  have  we  not  heard  impa- 
tient or  contemptuous  protests  against  the  well- 
meaning  perhaps,  but  shallow,  and  often  vulgar, 
persons  who  are  ashamed  or  afraid  of  doubt,  and 
insist  on  using  this  sort  of  precise  language  about 
matters  which  will  not  bear  it,  of  which  nothing 
certain  is,  or  can  be,  known.  But  they  are  for  the 
most  part  poor  creatures  (when  not  parsons,  and 
therefore  tied  to  their  professional  shibboleths),  fools 
or  bigots,  useless  for  this  world  and  in  their  rela- 
tions with  visible  things,  where  we  can  test  them, 
whatever  they  may  be  as  to  any  other,  of  which 


THE  king's  exchequer.  195 

neither  they  nor  we  can  know  anything.  Do  any 
of  our  best  intellects,  statesmen,  scholars,  scientific 
men  —  any  of  those  who  lead  the  thought  and  do 
the  work  of  our  time  —  talk  thus  ? 

But  this  straightforward,  practical  English  king, 
the  hardest  worker  probably  who  ever  lived  in  these 
islands,  who  was  the  first  statesman,  scholar,  scien- 
tific man  of  his  day,  —  who  fought  more  pitched 
battles  than  he  lived  years,  and  triumphed  over  the 
most  formidable  leaders  Europe  could  produce  in 
those  wild  times,  —  who  reorganized  and  put  new 
life  into  every  institution  of  his  coimtrj^  and  yet 
attended  to  every  detail  of  business  like  a  common 
merchant,  —  is  precisely  the  man  who  ought  to  have 
been  free  from  this  kind  of  superstition.  It  is  a 
hard  saying  in  the  mouth  of  such  a  ruler  of  men, 
this  of  "  Under  thy  government  I  wish  to  abide,  for 
thou  alone  reignest."  This  can  scarcely  refer  to  the 
"  tendency  by  which  all  men  strive  to  fulfil  the  law 
of  their  being."    What  does  it  mean  ? 


196  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTEE    XVII. 

THE  king's  church. 

•♦  Is  not  the  Lord  your  God  with  you?  and  hath  he  not  given  you  rest 
on  every  side  ?  Now  set  your  heart  and  your  soul  to  seek  the  Lord 
vour  God :  arise,  therefore,  and  build  ye  the  sanctuars'  of  the  Lord 
God." 

"  TD  Y  the  end  of  the  seventh  century,"  says  Mr. 
JD  Freeman,  "  the  independent  insular  Teutonic 
Church  had  become  one  of  the  brightest  lights  of  tlie 
Christian  firmament."  Tlie  sad  change  which  liad 
come  over  her  in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century 
has  already  been  noticed.  She  had  entirely  ceased 
to  be  a  missionary  church,  and  even  in  the  matter 
of  learning  had  so  deteriorated,  that  Alfred  himself 
"UTites  in  his  preface  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  version  of 
Gregory's  Pastoral  Care  :  "  So  clean  was  learning 
now  fallen  off  amongst  the  English  race,  that  there 
Avere  very  few  on  this  side  the  Humber  who  were 
able  to  understand  their  ser^dce  in  English,  or  even 
to  turn  a  written  letter  from  Latin  into  English^  and 
I  think  that  there  were  not  many  beyond  the  Hum- 
ber. So  few  there  were  of  them,  that  I  cannot  think 
of  even  one  on  the  south  of  the  Thames  when  I  first 
took  to  the  kingdom."  At  the  same  time  Alfred 
also  remembers  that  when  he  was  young  he  had 
seen,  "  ere  all  within  them  was  laid  waste  and  burnt 
up,  how  the  churches  throughout  all  the  English 
race  stood  filled  with  treasures  and  books,  also  a  great 


THE    king's    CIILIICH.  197 

multitude  of  God's  servants,  though  they  knew  very- 
little  use  of  those  books,  for  that  they  could  not  un- 
derstand anything  of  them." 

At  the  time  of  which  Alfred  is  writing,  the  begin- 
ning of  his  own  reign,  it  would  seem,  too,  that  the 
class  from  which  hitherto  the  superior  clei-gy,  the 
monks  and  canons  of  the  cathedrals  and  abbeys,  had 
been  recruited,  had  ceased  to  supply  a  sufficient 
number  to  fill  up  vacancies.  Their  places  were  be- 
ing filled  by  the  parochial  clergy,  or  mass-priests, 
who  were  of  a  much  lower  class  socially.  For  the 
monks,  with  the  exception  of  foreignere  (of  whom 
there  had  always  been  some  in  every  considerable 
monastic  institution),  were  as  a  rule  of  the  noble 
class,  while  the  mass-priests  were  taken  from  the 
class  of  ceorls,  who  were  still  indeed  an  independent 
yeomanry,  and  owners  of  their  own  land,  but  in 
other  respects  little  removed  from  the  servile  class. 
That  tliis  lack  of  candidates  for  orders  was  felt  be- 
fore the  first  invasion  appears  from  an  incident 
which  happened  in  the  year  870,  just  before  the 
first  great  invasion  of  Wessex  and  Alfred's  acces- 
sion, and  consequently  before  any  cathedral  or  abbey 
in  Wessex  had  been  plundered  or  burnt.  In  that 
year,  Ceolnoth,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died,  and 
"  King  Ethelred  and  Alfred  his  brother  took  Ethel- 
red,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  appointed  him  Ai'ch- 
bishop,  because  formerly  he  had  been  a  monk  of 
that  same  minster  of  Canterbury."  Now  in  Ceol- 
noth's  time  there  had  in  one  year  been  a  great  mor- 
tality in  Canterbury  amongst  the  monks,  so  that  five 
only  were  left  for  the  work  of  the  Cathedral.  He 
was  obliged  therefore  to  bring  in  some  of  "  the  priests 


198  LIFE   OF   ALFKED    THI':   CJUEAT. 

of  his  vills,  tliat  they  should  help  the  few  monks 
who  sm'vived  to  do  Christ's  service,  because  he  could 
not  so  readily  find  monks  who  would  of  themselves 
do  that  service."  Nevertheless  Ceolnoth  had  been 
always  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the  mass-priests,  and 
the  chronicler  reports  him  as  having  said,  "  So  soon 
as  God  shall  give  peace  to  this  land,  either  these 
priests  shall  be  monks,  or  from  elsewhere  I  will 
place  within  the  minster  as  many  monks  as  may  do 
the  service  of  themselves."  The  speech  was  more 
probably  Ethelred's,  wiio,  at  any  rate,  as  soon  as  he 
was  established  in  the  Archbishoijric,  took  counsel 
how  he  might  expel  the  clerks  that  were  therein. 
This  however  he  could  not  efl'i^t,  "  for  that  the  land 
was  much  distressed  by  frequent  battles,  and  there 
was  w^arfare  and  sorrow  all  his  time  over  England, 
so  that  the  clerks  remained  with  the  monks,"  and 
he  died  in  888  without  having  accomplished  his 
object. 

This  state  of  things  was  of  course  made  far  worse 
by  the  war.  That  which  was  now  the  West  Saxon 
kingdom  contained  at  least  five  dioceses,  besides 
that  of  Canterbury ;  of  these  A\'inchester,  Sherborne, 
Wells,  were  the  chief,  all  of  which  had  l3een  trav- 
ersed and  plundered  at  one  time  or  another.  The 
material  prosperity  had  followed  the  higher  life  of 
the  Church,  and  there  was  as  much  need  of  restor- 
ing the  mere  outward  frame\A'ork  of  churches  and 
monasteries  as  that  of  city  walls  and  fortifica- 
tions. 

To  this  the  King  turned  his  attention  soon  after 
the  peace  of  Wedmore.  AVe  have  heard  already 
that  of  the  half  of  liis  revenue  which  he  dedicated 


THE    KIN'.S    LllUKClI.  i'J'J 

to  religious  uses  oue  fourth  was  expended  on  the 
two  monasteries  of  his  own  foundation,  and  another 
fourth  on  the  monasteries  in  Wessex  and  the  other 
English  kingdoms.  The  erection  of  these  two 
monasteries  was  the  fii*st  ecclesiastical  work  lie 
took  in  hand.  The  one  for  monks  was  built  at 
Athelney,  in  fulfilment  of  a  vow  wliich  he  had 
made  there  during  his  residence  on  the  island.  A 
bridge  "laboriously  constructed"  was  now  thrown 
over  the  morass,  at  the  western  end  of  which  was 
erected  a  strong  tower  of  beautiful  work,  to  guard 
the  approach.  The  monastery  and  outbuildings 
occupied  the  whole  island,  and  being  built  before 
the  King  had  collected  his  army  of  artisans,  was  of 
wood,  the  church  small,  and  supported  on  four 
strong  pillars  of  wood,  and  surrounded  by  four 
smaller  cells  or  chancels. 

But  it  was  easier  to  build  the  monastery  than  to 
fill  it  as  the  King  would  wish  it  filled.  "  At  fii-st," 
says  Asser,  "  he  had  no  one  of  his  own  nation, 
noble  and  free  by  birth,  who  was  willing  to  enter 
the  monastic  life,  except  children,  who  could 
neither  choose  good  nor  avoid  evU,  in  consequence 
of  their  tender  years.  For  during  many  previous 
years,  the  love  of  a  monastic  life  had  utterly  de- 
cayed from  that  nation,  as  well  as  from  many  other 
nations,  though  many  monasteries  remained  in  the 
country.  As  yet  no  one  directed  the  rule  of  that 
kind  of  life  in  a  regular  way,  for  what  reason  I 
cannot  say,  either  from  the  invasions  of  foreigners, 
which  took  place  so  frequently  both  by  sea  and 
land,  or  l^ecause  that  people  abounded  in  riches  of 
every  kind,  and  so  looked  with  contempt  on  the 


liUO  LIFE    OF   ALFHFl)   THE    GliEAT. 

monastic  life."  Alfred  was  consequently  at  once 
driven  abroad,  not  only  for  learned  monks  who  were 
able  to  occupy  high  places,  and  to  instruct  those 
wlio  should  instruct  liis  people  in  all  kinds  of  learn- 
ing, but  even  for  the  ordinary  bretliren.  For  Athel- 
iiey  he  got  at  first  Abbot,  John,  priest  and  monk, 
an  old  Saxon  by  birth,  and  soon  after  him,  certain 
monks  and  deacons  from  beyond  tlie  sea.  But  the 
monastery  filled  so  slowly,  that  the  King  was  soon 
driven  to  procure  "as  man}'^  as  he  could  of  the 
Gallic  nation."  Of  these,  some  were  children,  for 
whom  as  well  as  for  natives  a  school  was  established 
at  Athelney,  and  they  were  taught  there.  Asser 
himself  had  seen  a  youth  of  pagan  birth  who  had 
been  educated  in  the  monastery,  and  was  of  great 
promise. 

Alfred's  second  monastery  was  one  for  nuns,  built 
by  the  eastern  gate  of  the  town  of  Shai'tesbury. 
The  first  abbess  was  Ethelgiva,  his  second  daughter, 
who  must  have  been  placed  in  that  position  while 
almost  a  child,  unless,  indeed,  the  monastery  was  not 
built  till  a  much  later  period  than  Asser  indicates. 
In  any  case  there  seems  to  have  been  no  difficulty 
in  finding  nuns  amongst  the  Saxon  nobles,  for  many 
noble  ladies  became  bound  by  the  rules  of  monastic 
life,  and  entered  the  convent  at  Shaftesbury  with 
the  King's  daughter.  Besides  an  original  endow- 
ment of  lands,  these  two  foundations  were  per- 
manently sustained  by  one  eighth  part  of  the  royal 
revenues. 

One  other  monastery  Alfred  appears  to  have  com- 
menced at  Winchester,  called  the  new  monastery, 
which  was  the  latest  and  most  mairnificent  of  his 


THE   KLNCi's   CULKCll.  liUi 

ecclesiastical  buildins:s.  It  was  intended  as  his 
burial-place,  but  was  not  finished  at  the  time  of 
liis  death.  The  chapel  was  so  near  the  cathedral 
church  of  Winchester  that  the  chanting  of  one 
choir  could  be  heard  in  the  other  building,  which 
seems  to  have  caused  much  bitterness  between  the 
bishop  and  abbot  and  their  respective  staffs.  To 
this  may  be  attributed  the  hard  terms  imposed  by 
the  bishop  on  Edward  the  elder,  Alfred's  son  and 
successor,  who,  being  anxious  to  complete  his  father's 
work,  and  to  add  suitable  offices  to  the  new  monas- 
tery, was  charged  by  tlie  bishop  a  mark  of  gold  for 
every  foot  of  land  lie  Avas  obliged  to  buy.  These 
are  Alfred's  only  ecclesiastical  foundations,  though 
he  was  a  munificent  benefactor  of  others,  such  as 
Sherborne  and  Durham  cathedrals,  and  the  abbeys 
of  Glastonbury  and  Wilton,  and  appropriated  one 
eighth  of  his  income  for  distribution  to  any  that 
had  need. 

But  the  building,  restoring,  and  maintaining  the 
outer  fabric  of  churches,  monasteries,  and  abbeys, 
was  only  the  easiest  part  of  the  King's  work.  The 
discipline  and  services  of  the  Church,  and  the 
lia1)its  and  manners  of  monks  and  priests,  had  fallen 
into  lamentable  confusion.  To  restore  these,  Al- 
fred searched  his  own  and  neighboring  kingdoms, 
and  iialhered  round  him  a  band  of  learned  and 
pious  churchmen,  of  whom  he  was  able  to  speak 
with  honomble  pride  towards  the  end  of  his  life  : 
"  It  is  unknown  how  long  there  may  be  so  learned 
bishops  as,  thank  God,  are  now  everywhere."  We 
sliall  have  to  notice  these  friends  of  the  King  by 
themselves ;  here  it  is  only  necessary  to  say  that 
9» 


202  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

they  taught  in  the  schools,  translated  Looks,  restored 
Church  discipline,  presided  in  synods,  all  under  the 
King's  eye,  and  so  retsored  the  character  of  the 
Church  of  England  that  once  again  "  the  clergy- 
were  zealous  in  learning  and  in  teaching,  and  in  all 
their  sacred  duties,  and  people  came  from  foreign 
countries  to  seek  instruction." 

One  of  the  first  effects  of  this  revival  was  to  at- 
tract the  notice  and  approval  of  the  Pope  Martinus, 
who,  either  in  the  year  882  or  883,  sent  an  embassy 
to  Alfred  with  presents,  including  "a  part  of  the 
rood  on  which  Christ  suffered."  The  King  in  re- 
turn, in  883,  sent  presents  to  the  Pope  by  the  liands 
of  Sighelm  and  Athelstan,  two  of  his  nobles,  who 
also  presented  the  suit  of  their  King  and  people, 
that  the  Saxon  schools  at  Eome,  which  were  sup- 
ported by  the  bounty  of  his  father  Ethelwulf,  and 
in  the  church  attached  to  which  Buhred,  his  un- 
happy brother-in-law,  was  buried,  might  be  freed 
from  all  toll  and  tribute.  Martinus  granted  the  re- 
quest, and  died  in  the  next  year.  But  his  death 
does  not  seem  to  have  affected  Alfred's  relations 
with  the  head  of  the  Church.  In  many  subsequent 
yeare  English  embassies  to  Pome  are  mentioned, 
those,  for  instance,  of  Ethelhelm,  Alderman  of 
Wilts  in  887,  and  Beocca  in  888,  with  whom  jour- 
neyed the  widowed  Ethelswitha,  Alfred's  sister, 
formerly  the  lady  of  Mercia,  to  make  her  grave 
with  her  husband.  She  never  reached  Pome,  but 
died  on  the  journey  at  Pavia.  Indeed,  the  note  in 
the  Saxon  Chronicle  for  the  year  889,  "  in  this  year 
there  was  no  journey  to  Rome,  except  that  King 
Alfred  sent  two  couriers  with  letters,"  would  lead 


iiii;  KiMis  <  iiLiirii.  _'u::i 

to  the  inference  that  an  embassy  was  regularly  sent 
in  ordinary  years  to  carrj'  the  otierings  of  the  King 
and  people  to  the  shrine  of  St.  Peter.  Beyond  this 
interchange  of  courtesies,  however,  and  the  annual 
gifts,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  relations  between 
the  Pope  and  the  English  Church  became  at  all 
more  intimate  in  Alfred's  time.  In  some  respects, 
undoubtedly,  he  asserted  his  authority  over  the  na- 
tional Church,  and  his  superiority  to  its  highest 
ministers,  more  decidedly  than  any  of  liis  prede- 
cessors. In  his  laws,  the  second  commandment 
was  virtually  restored  to  the  Decalogue  ;  the  King's 
were-gild  was  made  higher  than  an  archbishop's, 
reversing  the  older  law  :  the  fine  for  breaking  the 
King's  bail  Avas  five  pounds'  weight  of  coin ;  for 
breaking  an  archbishop's  bail,  three  pounds  only : 
for  breaking  into  the  King's  house,  120  shillings ; 
into  an  archbishop's,  ninety.  Again,  the  way  in 
which  the  King  addresses  and  employs  his  bishops, 
carrying  them  about  with  hira,  and  using  them  as 
translators  of  the  Scriptures,  or  of  any  other  work 
which  he  desires  to  put  within  reach  of  his  people, 
shows  that  he  claimed  them  as  his  officers,  and 
that  they  acknowledged  his  authority.  It  is  said 
that  he  left  all  the  sees  of  Wessex  vacant  for  the 
last  years  of  his  reign,  and  only  under  the  care 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  that  the  Pope 
did  not  even  remonstrate  with  him,  but  on  his  death 
threatened  his  successor  with  excommunication  un- 
less they  were  filled  up.  From  this  fact  Spelman 
ai-gues  that  Alfred's  "  life  and  ways  were  not  pleas- 
ing to  the  fathers  at  Eome."  But  this  statement 
does  not  rest  on  any  trustworthy  authority,  and  it 


204  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GUEAT. 

seems  far  more  probable  tliat  Alfred  lived  on  ex- 
cellent terms  w^th  contemporary  popes.  They,  for 
their  part,  seem  to  have  wisely  followed  the  lib- 
eral policy  indicated  in  Grei^ory's  answers  to  Saint 
Augustine,  and  to  have  allowed  the  Church  in  the 
distant  island  to  develop  in  its  own  way.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  King  evidently  entertained,  and  ex- 
pressed on  all  occasions,  very  real  and  deep  rev- 
erence for  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  Church, 
and  worked  in  such  noble  and  perfect  harmony  with 
his  own  bishops  that  no  questions  seem  ever  to 
have  arisen  in  his  reign  which  could  bring  the 
spiritual  and  temporal  powers  into  collision.  His 
own  humble  and  earnest  piety,  and  scrupulous  ob- 
servance of  all  the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  united 
with  extraordinary  firmness  and  power  of  ruling 
men,  no  doubt  contributed  to  this  happy  result. 

And  so  State  and  Church  worked  in  harmony 
side  by  side,  ex'ercising  a  concurrent  jurisdiction  of 
a  very  remarkable  kind.  E^•ery  crime  was  punish- 
able both  by  the  civil  and  spiritual  tribunals.  The 
king  and  witan,  or  tlie  judge  and  jury,  or  homage 
(as  the  case  might  be),  punished  the  offender  for 
the  damage  h'e  had  done  to  his  fellow-citizens,  or  to 
the  commonwealth,  by  fines,  or  mutilation,  or  im- 
prisonment. But  the  criminal  was  not  thus  fully 
discharged.  The  moral  sin  remained,  with  which 
the  State  did  not  profess  to  deal,  but  left  it  to  the 
spiritual  powers,  aided  by  the  provisions  of  the 
code.  Accordingly,  for  every  crime  there  was  also 
a  penance,  to  be  fixed  by  bishop  or  priest.  In 
short,  Alfred  and  his  witan  believed  tliat  sin  might 
be  rooted  out  by  external  sanctions,  penalties  affect- 


THE  king's  church.  205 

ing  body  and  goods.  The  Church,  they  thought, 
was  the  proper  authority,  the  power  Avhicli  could  do 
this  work  for  the  commonwealth,  and  accordingly  to 
the  Church  the  duty  was  intrusted. 

Looked  at  with  the  experience  of  another  1,000 
years,  the  wonder  is,  not  that  the  attempt  did  not 
succeed,  but  that  it  worked  even  for  a  generation  or 
so  without  bringing  the  two  powers  into  the  fiercest 
conflict.  The  singleness  of  mind  and  heart,  and  ear- 
nestness of  Alfred,  must  have  inspired  in  great  meas- 
ure his  aldermen,  judges,  bishops,  all  men  in  respon- 
sible offices.  So  he  could  put  forth  his  ideal,  simply 
and  squarely,  and  expect  all  Englishmen  to  endeavor 
to  realize  that,  —  with  results  even  there  and  then  of 
a  very  surprising  kind.  For  through  the  mists  of 
1,000  years  we  do  here  actually  see  a  people  trying, 
in  a  somewhat  rude  and  uncouth  way,  but  still  hon- 
estly, to  found  their  daily  life  on  the  highest  ideal 
tliey  aould  hear  of,  —  on  the  divine  law  as  they  ac- 
knowledged it,  —  of  doing  as  they  would  be  done  by. 

Rome  was  not  the  only  or  the  most  distant  for- 
eign Church  to  which  Alfred  sent  embassies.  He 
had  made  a  vow,  before  the  taking  and  rebuilding 
of  London,  that,  if  he  should  be  successful  in  that 
undertaking,  he  would  send  gifts  to  the  Christian 
churches  in  the  far  East,  of  which  uncertain  rumors 
and  traditions  still  spoke  throughout  Christendom. 
The  apostles  St.  Thomas  and  St.  Bartholomew  had 
preached  the  Gospel  in  India  and  founded  these 
churches,  it  was  said,  and  it  was  to  them  that  Al- 
fred, in  performance  of  his  vow,  despatched  the 
same  Sighelm  and  Athelstan  who  were  the  bearei-s 
of  his  gifts  and  letters  to  Pope  Martinus.     They 


206  LIFE   OF   ALFRED  THE   GREAT. 

would  seem,  indeed,  to  have  gone  on  from  Eome  in 
the  year  883,  by  what  route  we  know  not,  or  how 
long  they  were  upon  their  mission,  or  how  they 
sped,  save  only  that  they  came  back  to  their  King, 
bringing  greetings  from  those  distant  brethren,  and 
gifts  of  precious  stones  and  spices  in  return  for  his 
alms.  These  Alfred  distributed  amongst  his  cathe- 
drals, in  some  of  which  they  were  preserved  for 
centuries.  Such  was  the  first  intercourse  between 
England  and  the  great  empire  which  has  since 
been  committed  to  her  in  the  East.  St.  Thomas's 
Christians  are  still  to  be  found  in  Malabar  and 
elsewhere. 

Asser  also  mentions  letters  and  presents  sent  by 
Abel,  the  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  to  his  king.  It 
does  not  appear,  however,  that  Alfred  sent  any  em- 
bassy to  the  Holy  Land.  Dr.  Pauli  suggests  that 
these  gifts  might  have  been  brought  to  England  by 
the  survivor  of  three  Scotch  pilgrims,  whose  names 
a  romantic  legend  connects  with  the  English  king. 
Dunstane,  Macbeth,  and  ]\laclinman,  were  the  three 
Christians  in  question,  who,  despairing,  it  would 
seem,  of  the  Church  in  their  own  country,  put  to 
sea  in  a  frail  boat,  patched  together  with  ox-hides 
and  carrying  a  week's  provisions,  and  landed  on  the 
coast  of  Cornwall.  From  thence  they  made  their 
way  to  Alfred's  court,  and  were  hospitably  enter- 
tained by  him,  as  his  wont  was,  and  forwarded  on 
their  journey,  from  which  one  of  them  only  re- 
turned. 

Asser  speaks  also,  in  general  language,  of  daily 
embassies  sent  to  the  King  by  foreign  nations,  "  from 
the  Tyrrhenian  Sea  to  the  farthest  end  of  Ireland." 


THE  king's  chukch.  207 

Of  these,  however,  we  have  no  certain  account,  but 
enough  remains  to  show  how  fhe  spirit  of  Alfred 
yearned  for  intercourse  with  Christians  in  all  parts 
of  the  known  world,  and  how  the  fame  of  his 
righteous  government,  and  of  his  restored  Church, 
was  going  forth,  in  these  years  of  peace,  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth. 

But  the  gi-eatest  work  of  that  Church,  as  of  all 
true  churches,  was  the  education  of  the  people  at 
home.  Besides  the  schools  attached  to  his  founda- 
tions of  Athelney  and  Winchester,  Alfred  established 
many  schools  for  the  laity  in  difierent  parts  of  his 
kingdom.  One  was  attached  to  tlie  court,  and  in  it 
the  children  of  his  nobles,  ministers,  and  friends 
were  educated  with  his  own  children,  and  "were 
loved  by  him  with  wonderful  affection,  being  no  less 
dear  to  him  than  his  own."  They  were  educated 
carefully  in  good  morals,  and  in  the  study  of  their 
own  language,  the  King  himself  constantly  super- 
intending, and  taking  part  in  the  teaching.  To  use 
his  own  words,  he  was  desirous  "  that  all  the  free- 
born  youth  of  his  people  who  had  the  means  should 
persevere  in  learning  so  long  as  they  had  no  other 
duties  to  attend  to,  until  they  could  read  the  Eng- 
lish Scriptures  with  fluency,  and  such  as  desired  to 
devote  themselves  to  the  sei*vice  of  the  Church 
miirht  be  taught  Latin." 


208  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GHEAT. 


CHAPTER   XYIII. 

THE  king's  friends. 

'*  As  the  judge  of  the  people  is  himself,  so  are  his  ofBcers  :  and  what 
man  the  ruler  of  the  city  is,  such  are  all  they  that  dwell  therein." 

"YTT"E  have  already  incidentally  come  across 
VV  several  of  the  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics 
who  were  singled  out  and  employed  by  Alfred,  and 
must  now  endeavor  to  make  some  closer  acquaint- 
ance with  the  men  through  whom  the  great  reform 
of  the  English  nation  was  wrought  out  under  the 
great  king.  Unfortunately,  the  memorials  of  them 
are  scanty,  for  they  were  a  set  of  notable  workers, 
worthy  of  all  honor,  and  of  the  attentive  and  re- 
spectful regard  even  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
They  were  of  all  races  whom  the  King  could  get  at, 
and  of  all  ranks.  Prince,  noble,  or  peasant,  rough 
skipper,  or  studious  monk,  or  cunning  craftsman,  it 
was  the  same  to  him.  The  man  who  could  do  his 
work,  this  was  all  he  cared  for,  and  wlien  he  had 
found  him  set  him  forthwith  to  do  it,  with  what- 
ever promotion,  precedence,  or  other  material  sup- 
port might  best  help  him. 

John,  the  old  Saxon,  sometimes  called  John  of 
Corvey,  priest  and  monk,  a  stern  disciplinarian  and 
courageous  person,  we  have  already  heard  of  as  first 
Abbot  of  Athelney,  having  also  the  superintendence 
of  the   theological  school  attached   to   the  King's 


THK    KIXC'S   FRIENDS.  209 

monastery  there.  Alfred  himself  luis  studied  under ' 
him,  and  so  has  come  to  discern  the  man's  faculty ; 
for  he  was  the  King's  mass-priest  while  Athelney 
was  building,  and  helped  him  in  the  translation  of 
"  The  Hinds'  Book "  (Gregory's  pastoral)  into  the 
English  tongue.  Abbot  John  had  a  difficult,  even  a 
perilous  time  of  it  there,  in  the  little  island,  remote 
from  men,  hemmed  in  by  swamp  and  forest,  where 
his  monks  have  no  orchards  or  gardens  to  till,  and 
his  boys  no  playground.  The  King's  piety  and  love 
of  his  place  of  refuge  have  for  once  outweighed  his 
sagacity,  or  he  had  not  chosen  the  island  for  such 
purposes.  Englishmen  cannot  be  got  to  live  there, 
and  the  Franks  and  others  are  jealous  of  their  abbot. 
Brooding  over  it  in  that  solitude,  at  last  a  priest  and 
deacon  and  two  monks',  all  Franks,  plot  his  murder. 
John  the  Abbot  goes  constantly  at  midnight  to  pray 
before  the  high  altar  by  himself.  So  the  plotters 
bribe  two  foreign  serving-men  to  hide  in  the  church 
armed,  and  there  slay  him ;  after  which  they  were 
to  drag  out  the  body,  and  cast  it  before  the  house 
of  a  certain  woman  of  evil  repute.  The  men  on 
the  night  appointed  accordingly  rushed  on  the  old 
man  as  he  was  kneeling  before  the  altar.  But  he, 
hearing  their  approach,  "  being  a  man  of  brave 
mind,  and  as  we  have  heard  not  unacquainted  with 
the  art  of  self-defence,  if  he  had  not  been  the  fol- 
lower of  a  better  calling,"  rose  up  before  he  was 
wounded,  and  strove  with  them,  shouting  out  that 
they  were  devils.  The  monks,  alarmed  by  the 
cries,  rush  in  in  time  to  carry  their  abbot  off  badly 
wounded,  the  conspirators  mingling  their  tears  with 
those  of  the  other  monks.     In  the  confusion  the 


210  I.IFK    OF   ALFHKI)   THE    GREAT. 

assassins  escape  for  the  moment,  but  in  the  end 
all  those  concerned  were  taken  and  put  in  prison, 
"  where  by  various  tortures  they  came  to  a  disgrace- 
ful end." 

Nothing  more  is  known  of  Abbot  John's  troubles 
or  successes,  and  we  may  hope  that  he  got  his 
monastery  and  school  into  working  order,  and  lived 
peaceably  tliere  for  the  rest  of  his  days. 

^\'hen  a  boy,  Alfred,  travelling  across  France  with 
his  father,  had  become  acquainted,  amongst  other 
eminent  scholars,  with  Grimbald,  a  priest  skilled  in 
music,  and  learned  in  Holy  Scripture,  and  in  all 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Churcli.  He  has 
risen  since  that  time  to  the  dignity  of  Provost  of 
St.  Omers,  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Fulk,  Arch- 
bishop of  Eheims.  To  this  prelate  Alfred  sends  an 
embassy  both  of  ecclesiastics  and  laymen,  bearing 
presents,  and  praying  that  Grimbald  may  be  allowed 
to  come  to  England,  to  assist  in  building  up  and  re- 
storing the  Church  there.  The  answer  is  still  ex- 
tant. Addressing  "  the  most  Christian  King  of  the 
English,"  Fulk,  "Archbishop  of  Eheims  and  the 
servant  of  the  servants  of  God,"  congratulates  Al- 
fred on  the  success  of  his  temporal  arms,  and  his 
zeal  for  enlarging  the  Church  by  .spiritual  weapons. 
The  Archbishop  prays  incessantly  that  God  will 
multiply  peace  to  the  King's  realm  in  his  days,  and 
that  the  ecclesiastical  orders  ("  which  have,  as  ye 
say,  in  many  ways  fallen  away,  whether  by  the  con- 
stant inroads  of  heathen  men,  or  because  the  times 
are  feeble  by  age,  or  through  the  neglect  of  bishops, 
or  ignorance  of  the  inferior  clergy")  may  by  his 
diligence   be   reformed,  ennobled,  extended.      Tho 


THE   king's   friends.  211 

Archbishop  acknowledges,  has  evidently  been  elated 
by,  the  King's  desire  to  import  doctrine  and  disci- 
pline from  the  Seat  of  Saint  Remigius,  "  which,  we 
are  constrained  to  boast,  has  always  excelled  in 
worship  and  doctrine  all  other  French  churches." 
Amongst  other  presents  (for  which  grateful  thanks) 
"  ye  have  sent  us  noble  and  very  stanch  hounds, 
though  carnal,  for  the  controlling  of  those  visible 
wolves,  with  great  abundance  of  which,  amongst 
other  scourges,  a  just  God  has  afflicted  our  land  ; 
asking  of  us  in  return  hounds,  not  carnal  but 
spiritual,  not  such,  however,  as  those  of  which  the 
])rophet  has  said  '  many  dogs,  not  able  to  bark,'  but 
such  as  shall  know  well  how  for  their  Lord  to  bay 
in  earnest  {magnos  latratus  fimdere),  to  guard  his 
Hock  with  most  vigilant  watchfulness,  and  to  drive 
far  away  those  most  cruel  wolves  of  unclean  spirits, 
wlio  are  the  betrayers  and  devourers  of  souls.  Out 
of  such  spiritual  watchdogs  ye  have  singled  out  and 
asked  from  us  one  of  the  name  of  Grimbald,  priest 
and  monk,  to  whom  the  universal  Church  bears 
record,  she  who  has  nourished  him  from  his  child- 
hood in  the  true  faith,  advancing  him  after  her 
manner  to  the  dignity  of  the  priesthood,  and  pro- 
claiming him  suited  to  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
honor,  and  well  fitted  to  teach  others.  This  same 
man  has  been  a  most  faithful  coadjutor  to  us,  and 
we  cannot  without  sore  affliction  suffer  him  to  be 
parted  from  us  by  so  vast  a  space  of  laiwl  and  sea. 
But  charity  taketh  no  note  of  sacrifice,  nor  faith  of 
injury,  nor  can  any  eartlily  distance  keep  apart 
those  whom  the  chain  of  a  true  affection  joins. 
Wlierefore  we  grant  this  request  of  youre  most  will- 


212  LIFK   OF    ALFRED    THE   CREAT. 

ingly."  Such  is  the  reply,  much  abridged,  of  the 
worthy  Archbishop,  evidently  a  Christian  prelate 
with  large  leisure,  some  sense  of  humor,  and  a 
copious  epistolar}'"  gift,  who  is  impressed  in  liis 
continental  diocese  with  the  vigor  and  greatness 
of  his  correspondent,  and  "  desires  that  his  royal 
state,  piety,  and  valor  may  continue  to  rejoice  and 
abound  in  Christ,  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords." 

Grimbald,  thus  introduced,  remains  at  first  by 
Alfred's  side  as  one  of  his  mass-priests,  assisting  the 
King  in  his  translations.  Afterwards  he  becomes 
professor  of  divinity  in  one  of  the  new  schools,  prob- 
ably at  Oxford,  and  then  abbot  of  the  new  monastery 
at  AVinchester.  There  has  been  much  learned  con- 
troversy as  to  Grimbald's  connection  with  Oxford,  in 
consequence  of  an  interpolation  in  one  of  the  early 
manuscripts  of  Asser's  life,  which  purports  to  give 
an  account  of  a  violent  quarrel  which  soon  arose 
between  Grimbald  and  the  scholars  whom  he  found 
there,  and  who  refused  to  submit  to  the  "  laws, 
modes,  and  forms  of  prelection,"  which  he  desired  to 
introduce.  Their  own,  they  maintained,  had  been 
established  and  approved  by  many  learned  and 
pious  men,  hotal)ly  by  St.  Germanus,  who  had  come 
to  Oxford,  and  stopped  there  for  half  a  year  on  his 
way  to  preach  against  the  heresies  of  Pelagius.  The 
strife  ran  so  high  that  the  King  himself  went  to 
Oxford,  at  Grimbald's  summons,  and  "  endured  much 
trouble  "  in  hearing  the  arguments  on  both  sides. 
Having  listened  "with  unheard-of  humility,  the 
King  exhorted  them,  with  pious  and  wholesome  ad- 
monition, to  cherish  mutual  love  and  concord,  and 


THE  king's  friends.  213 

decided  that  each  party  should  follow  their  own 
counsel  and  keep  their  own  institutions."  The  whole 
story  is  probably  the  invention  of  a  later  century, 
when  the  claims  of  the  two  great  universities  to 
priority  of  foundation  were  warmly  discussed.  There 
is  no  proof  that  Oxford  existed  as  a  place  of  edu- 
cation before  Alfred's  time,  nor  is  it  certain  that  he 
founded  schools  there,  though  the  "  Annals  of  Win- 
chester," and  other  ancient  and  respectable  authori- 
ties, so  assert,  and  that  he  built  and  endowed  three 
colleges, "  the  greater  hall,  the  lesser  hall,  and  the  lit- 
tle hall "  of  the  university,  of  which  halls  University 
College  is  the  lineal  survivor.  "  Grimbald's  crypt," 
however,  may  still  be  seen  under  the  chancel  of  St. 
Peter's  Church,  the  oldest  in  Oxford,  and  it  seems 
more  than  probable  that  in  some  of  the  manuscripts 
of  Asser's  life,  now  lost,  there  was  an  account  of  the 
building  of  the  original  church  on  this  site  by  Grim- 
l3ald,  and  its  consecration  by  the  Bishop  of  Dorches- 
ter. The  present  church  and  crypt  are  undoubtedly 
of  later  date,  but  the  tmdition  is  strong  enough  to 
support  the  arguments  of  the  learned.  Those  who 
are  interested  in  the  controversy  will  find  it  elabo- 
rately summed  up  in  Sir  J.  Spelman's  Third  Book. 
In  any  case,  it  is  certain  that  Alfred  had  a  mint  at 
Oxford,  even  if  he  founded  no  schools  there. 

Of  English  churchmen,  Plegraund,  Alfred's  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  a  Mercian  by  birth,  is  the 
most  distinguished,  —  said  indeed  to  have  been  the 
first  man  of  his  time  "in  the  science  of  holy  learn- 
ing.'' He  escaped  from  the  sack  of  his  monastery  at 
the  time  of  the  Danish  invasion  of  ^fercia,  in  876, 
and  lived  as  a  hermit  in  an  island  four  and  a  half 


214  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

miles  from  Chester  for  fourteen  years,  till  sought 
out  by  Alfred  and  promoted  to  the  primacy  in  890, 
on  the  death  of  Archbishop  Ethelred.  It  is  more 
probable,  however,  that  he  was  constantly  with 
Alfred  much  earlier  than  this,  for  he  is  specially 
named  as  his  instructor,  and  seldom  quitted  the 
Court  till  after  his  lord's  death.  He  went,  however, 
to  Eome  in  891  to  be  consecrated  by  Pope  Formo- 
sus ;  and  again  a  second  time,  after  the  body  of  For- 
niosus  had  been  disinterred  and  thrown  into  the 
Tiber  by  Stephen  liis  successor,  to  be  reconsecrated. 
He  survived  AKred  for  twenty -three  years,  and  seems 
to  have  ruled  the  English  Church  wisely  till  his  own 
death. 

Another  ^Mercian  who  was  much  consulted  by 
Alfred,  and  who  appears  to  have  frequently  visited 
him  in  Wessex,  was  Werfrith,  Bishop  of  "Worcester, 
to  whom  the  King's  celebrated  preface  to  Gregory's 
"  Pastoral  Care  "  is  addressed,  and  who,  by  Alfred's 
desire,  translated  the  Dialogues  of  the  same  Pope 
into  Saxon.  He  was  the  foremost  helper  of  Alder- 
man Ethelred  and  his  wife,  the  Lady  of  Alercia, 
Ethelfleda,  Alfred's  daughter,  and  a  vigorous  organ- 
izer and  governor  of  the  things  and  persons  of  this 
world ;  ready,  however,  as  a  loyal  son  of  holy 
Church  to  extend  the  rights  of  the  see  of  Worcester 
whenever  opportunity  might  offer.  A  most  charac- 
teristic instance  of  this  instinct  of  Bishop  AVerfrith's 
occurs  in  the  report  of  a  sitting  of  the  Mercian 
witan,  first  translated  by  Dr.  Pauli  from  the  Saxon. 
It  is,  in  fact,  the  report  of  an  important  parliamen- 
tary debate  of  1,000  years  back,  curious  as  a  con- 
trast to  a  Hansard's  debate  of  to-day  in  more  ways 


THE  king's  friends.  215 

than  one.      It   can   scarcely  be   abridged  without 
damage,  and  is  as  follows :  — 

"  In  the  name  of  Christ  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 
After  eight  hundred  and  ninety-six  years  had 
passed  since  his  birth,  in  the  fourteenth  Indiction, 
the  Ealdernian  Ethelred  summoned  the  Mercian 
witan,  bishops,  nobles,  and  all  his  forces,  to  appear 
at  Gloster ;  and  this  he  did  with  the  knowledge  and 
approbation  of  King  AKred.  There  they  took  coun- 
sel together  how  they  might  the  most  justly  govern 
their  community  before  God  and  the  world,  and 
many  men,  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  consulted  together 
respecting  the  lands,  and  many  other  matters  which 
were  laid  before  them.  Then  Bishop  Werfrith  spoke 
to  the  assembled  witan,  and  declared  that  all  forest 
land  which  belonged  to  Wuduceastre,  and  the  rev- 
enues of  which  King  Ethelbald  once  bestowed  on 
"Worcester  forever  should  henceforth  be  held  by 
Bishop  Werfrith  for  wood  and  pasture ;  and  he  said 
that  the  revenue  should  be  taken  partly  at  Bislege, 
partly  at  Aefeningas,  partly  at  Scorranstane,  and 
partly  at  Thornbyrig,  according  as  he  chose.  Then 
all  the  witan  answered  that  the  Church  must  make 
good  her  right  as  well  as  others.  Then  Ethelwald 
(Ealderman  ?)  spoke  :  he  would  not  oppose  the  right, 
the  Bishops  Aldberht  and  Alhun  had  already  nego- 
tiated hereon,  he  would  at  all  times  grant  to  each 
church  her  allotted  portion.  So  he  benevolently 
yielded  to  the  bishop's  claim,  and  commanded  his 
vassal  Ecglaf  to  depart  with  Wulfhun,  the  priest  of 
the  place  (Gloster  ?  —  properly,  the  inhabitant  of 
the  place).  And  he  caused  all  the  boundaries  to  be 
surveyed  by  them,  as  he  read  tliera  in  the  old  books, 


216  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GKEAT. 

and  as  King  Ethelbald  had  formerly  marked  them 
out  and  granted  them.  But  Ethehvald  still  desired 
from  the  bishops  and  the  diocese,  that  they  should 
kindly  allow  him  and  his  son  Alhmund  to  enjoy  the 
profits  of  the  laud  for  life  ;  they  would  hold  it  ouly 
as  a  loan,  and  no  one  might  deprive  them  of  any  of 
the  rights  of  pasture,  which  were  granted  to  him  at 
Langanhrycge  at  tlie  time  when  God  gave  liim  the 
land.  And  Ethelwald  declared  that  it  would  be 
always  against  God's  favor  for  any  one  to  possess  it 
but  the  lord  of  that  church  to  whom  it  had  been 
relinquished,  with  the  exception  of  Alhmund ;  and 
that  he,  during  his  life,  would  maintain  the  same 
friendly  spirit  of  co-operation  with  the  bishop.  But 
if  it  ever  happened  that  Alhmund  should  cease  to 
recognize  the  agreement,  or  if  he  should  be  pro- 
nounced unworthy  to  keep  the  land,  or,  thirdly,  if 
his  end  should  arrive,  then  the  lord  of  the  church 
should  enter  into  possession,  as  the  Mercian  witan 
had  decided  at  their  assembly,  and  pointed  out  to 
him  in  the  books.  This  took  place  with  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Ealderman  Ethelred,  of  Ethelfleda,  of 
the  Ealdermen  Ethulf,  Ethelferth,  and  Alhhelm,  of 
the  Priests  Ednoth,  Elfraed,  "NVerferth,  and  Ethel- 
wald, of  his  own  kinsmen,  Ethelstan  and  Ethelhun, 
and  likewise  of  Alhmund  his  own  son.  And  so  the 
priest  of  the  place  and  Ethelwald's  vassal  rode  over 
the  land,  first  to  Ginnethlsege  and  Eoddimbeorg, 
then  to  Smececumb  and  Sengetlege,  then  to  Hear- 
danlege  also  called  Dryganleg,  and  as  far  as  Little 
Naegleslege  and  the  land  of  Ethelferth.  So  Ethel- 
wald's men  pointed  out  to  him  the  boundaries  as 
they  were  defined  and  shown  in  the  ancient  books." 


THE  king's  fhiends.  217 

To  Bisliop  Werfritli's  zeal  aud  ability  it  is  most 
probably  owing  that  the  reaction  towards  paganism 
in  ^lercia,  which  followed  the  Danish  occupation, 
made  little  progress.  All  traces  of  it  seem  to  have 
disappeared  before  Alfred's  death,  when  Central 
England  had  become  as  sound  as  Southern  England. 

The  only  native  of  Wessex  who  would  seem  to 
hive  won  a  place  for  himself  in  that  little  band  of 
reforming  churchmen  was  Denewulf,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, an  honored  and  faithful  counsellor  of  the 
King,  who  is  commonly  supposed  to  be  the  neat- 
herd with  whom  Alfred  became  acquainted  in  878, 
in  Selwood  Forest.  If  this  be  so,  he  could  scarcely 
have  been  a  wholly  imeducated  man  even  then,  as 
Alfred  required  scholarship  in  his  bishops,  and 
Denewulf  was  consecrated  before  the  end  of  881. 
The  story  rests  principally  on  the  autliority  of  the 
Chronicle  of  Florence  of  Worcester,  compiled  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  eleventh  century. 

But  the  friend  of  Alfred's  of  whom  we  know 
most  is  Asser  ^Menevensis,  a  Welsh  monk,  the 
author  of  tlie  Life  so  often  quoted  ;  and  who,  during 
the  last  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of  his  life,  was 
the  most  intimate  friend  and  adviser  of  the  King. 
Somewhere  about  the  year  884  Asser  was  either 
summoned  by  Alfred,  or  came  of  his  own  accord, 
from  the  monastery  of  St.  David's,  on  "  the  furthest 
western  coast  of  Wales,"  to  the  royal  residence  at 
Dene,  in  Sussex,  where  Alfred  was  then  staying 
with  his  court.  It  would  seem  that  the  Welsh 
prince,  Hemeid,  who  had  sworn  allegiance  to  Alfred 
to  obtain  protection  against  the  six  sons  of  Rotri, 
was  in  the  habit  of  plundering  the  monastery,  and 

10 


218  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

had  recently  driven  Novis,  Archbishop  of  St.  David's, 
Asser's  kinsman,  out  of  his  diocese.  Xovis  and  his 
kinsman  will  no  doubt  have  reasoned,  that  a  king 
familiar  with  the  parables  would  be  wroth  at  such 
conduct  in  a  fellow-servant :  and  that  he  who  was 
so  bent  on  establishing  monasteries  as  schools  and 
refuges  for  learning  in  his  own  kingdom,  will  not 
suffer  this  kind  of  doings  by  one  whom  he  is  pro- 
tecting. Whether  summoned  or  not,  Asser  was 
received  with  open  arms  by  the  King,  who  knew 
him  for  a  learned  and  pious  man,  and  at  once  ad- 
mitted him  to  familiar  intercourse.  Soon  the  King 
began  to  press  him  earnestly  to  devote  himself  to 
his  service,  and  to  give  up  all  he  possessed  on  the 
west  bank  of  the  Severn,  promising  to  recompense 
him  amply  in  his  own  dominions.  "  I  replied," 
Asser  continues,  "  that  I  could  not  without  thought, 
and  rashly,  promise  such  things,  for  it  seemed  to  me 
wrong  to  leave  those  sacred  places  where  I  had  been 
bred  and  educated,  and  had  received  the  tonsure 
and  ordination,  for  the  sake  of  any  earthly  honor 
or  promotion.  Upon  this  he  said,  '  If  you  cannot 
altogether  accede  to  my  request,  at  least  let  me  have 
your  service  in  part ;  spend  six  months  of  the  year 
with  me,  and  the  other  six  in  Wales.'  I  answered 
that  I  could  not  even  promise  this  hastily,  without 
the  advice  of  my  friends.  But  at  length,  when  I 
saw  that  he  was  ver}-  anxious  for  my  service  (though 
I  know  not  why),  I  promised  that  if  my  life  were 
spared  I  would  come  back  in  six  months  Mith  such 
a  reply  as  would  be  welcome  to  him,  as.  well  as 
advantageous  to  me  and  my  friends.  With  this 
answer  he  was  content,  and  when  I  had  give  him  a 


THE  king's  friends.  219 

pledge  to  return  at  the  appointed  time,  on  the  fourth 
day  I  left  him,  and  retui'iied  on  hoi-seback  towards 
my  own  country.  After  my  departure  I  was  stricken 
by  a  violent  fever  at  Winchester,  where  I  lay  for  a 
year  and  a  week,  niglit  and  day,  without  hope  of 
recovery.  At  the  appointed  time,  therefore,  I  could 
not  redeem  my  pledge  of  returning  to  him,  and  he 
sent  messengere  to  hasten  my  journey  and  ask  the 
cause  of  the  delay.  As  I  was  unable  to  ride  to  him, 
I  sent  a  messenger  to  tell  him  the  cause  of  the 
delay,  and  to  assure  him  that  if  I  recovered  I  would 
fulfil  what  I  had  promised.  So  when  my  sickness 
left  me,  by  the  advice  of  all  my  friends,  for  the 
benefit  of  our  holy  place  and  of  all  who  dwelt 
therein,  I  did  as  I  had  promised  the  King,  and 
devoted  myself  to  Ms  service  on  condition  that  I 
should  remain  with  him  six  months  in  every  year, 
either  continuously,  if  I  could  spend  six  months  in 
every  year  with  him  continuously,  or  alternately, 
three  months  in  Wales,  and  three  in  England." 
Asser  accordingly  went  to  the  court  at  Leonaford, 
where  the  King  received  him  honorably,  and  he 
remained  eight  months,  "  during  which  I  read  to 
him  whatever  books  he  liked,  and  such  as  we  had 
at  hand ;  for  this  is  his  regular  custom  both  night 
and  day,  amid  his  man)--  other  occupations  of  mind 
and  body,  either  himself  to  read  books  or  to  listen 
while  others  read  them."  Asser,  however,  finds 
that  the  six  months'  compact  is  likely  to  be  foi'got- 
ten,  and  reminds  the  King  of  it  frequently.  "  At 
length,  when  I  had  made  np  my  mind  to  demand 
leave  to  go  home,  he  called  me  to  him  at  twilight, 
on  Christmas  eve,  and  gave  me  two  documents  in 


220  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

which  was  a  long  list  of  all  the  things  which  were 
in  two  monasteries,  called  in  Saxon  Angusbury  and 
Banwell,  and  at  that  same  time  delivered  to  me 
those  two  monasteries  M'itli  all  those  things  which 
were  in  them,  and  a  silken  pall  of  great  Aalue,  and 
a  load  of  incense  as  much  as  a  strong  man  could 
carry,  adding  that  he  did  not  give  me  these  trifling 
presents  because  he  was  unwilling  hereafter  to  give 
me  greater ;  for  in  course  of  time  he  unexpectedly 
gave  me  Exeter,  with  all  the  church  property  ^hich 
belonged  to  him  there  and  in  Cornwall,  besides 
daily  gifts  without  number,  of  every  kind  of  worldly 
wealth,  which  it  would  be  too  long  to  recount  lest  I 
should  weary  my  readers.  But  let  no  one  suppose 
that  I  have  mentioned  these  presents  here  for  the 
sake  of  glory  or  flattery,  or  to  obtain  greater  honor. 
I  call  God  to  witness  that  I  have  not  done  so,  but 
that  I  might  testify  to  those  who  are  ignorant  how 
liberal  he  is  in  giving.  He  then  at  once  gave  me 
leave  to  ride  to  these  monasteries,  and  then  to  return 
to  my  own  country."  So  Asser  was  installed  as  a 
sort  of  bishop  in  jjartibus  to  his  own  countiymen  in 
Cornwall  So  at  least  we  are  driven  to  conjecture, 
for  the  see  of  Exeter  was  not  constituted  for  another 
century,  nor  was  he  made  Bishop  of  Sherborne  till 
the  death  of  Wulfsig  in  the  year  900,  though  Al- 
fred styles  him  bishop,  and  his  name  is  attached  to 
charters  as  bishop  for  many  years  before  that  date. 
We  shall  have  to  return  to  the  good  bishop's  remi- 
niscences when  we  treat  of  the  King's  private  and 
literary  life. 

The  other  ecclesiastics  who  worked  in  that  noble 
band  of  the  King's  helpers,  such  as  Ethelstan  and 


Till-:    KIN<;'S    FKIEXDS.  221 

Werewulf  of  Mercia,  are  scarcely  more  than  names 
to  us,  unless  we  except  Joannes  Erigena,  or  Scotus, 
an  Irishman  by  birth,  who  is  said  by  some  to  have 
taken  refuge  with  the  King.  That  Alfred  when  a 
l)oy  had  known  John  at  the  court  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  where  he  was  tutor  to  Judith  and  her  brothers, 
we  have  already  heard,  and  may  be  sure  that  he 
would  have  been  anxious  to  obtain  the  help  of  so 
eminent  a  scholar  and  thinker.  Moreover,  John  the 
Scot,  who  has  been  called  the  father  of  the  Kealists, 
and  had  studied  in  the  East  and  at  Athens,  may 
well  have  needed  an  asylum  at  this  time.  He  had 
written  works  on  the  Eucharist,  and  on  predestina- 
tion, which  had  brought  him  into  trouble  with  the 
authorities  of  the  Church,  and  had  not  only  refused 
to  distinguish  religion  from  philosophy,  on  the 
ground  that  both  had  the  same  end,  —  the  search 
for  truth  ;  but  had  actually  maintained  that  all  au- 
thority is  derived  from  reason,  and  that  authority 
which  is  not  confirmed  by  reason  is  of  no  value. 
At  the  same  time  his  famous  retort  to  Charles,  — 
who  had  asked  him  sitting  at  meat  what  separates  a 
Scot  and  a  sot  {quid  interest  inter  Scotum  et  sotian) 
—  "The  table  only"  (mensa  tantum),  maj  have 
made  the  French  court  an  undesirable  residence. 
Still,  had  he  come  to  England,  Asser  had  surely 
specially  noticed  him  amongst  Alfred's  helpers  and 
friends. 

Of  laymen  a  long  list  might  be  given,  from  Ethel- 
red  of  Mercia,  to  Othere  and  Wulfstan,  his  sea-cap- 
tains, the  account  of  whose  voyages  in  tlie  North 
Sea  is  interpolated  by  Alfred  in  his  translation  of 
Orosius.     But  beyond  their  names,  and  offices  in  the 


2'12  LIFE    OF   ALF1;ED    THE   GREAT. 

King's  household,  tliere  is  little  to  tell  of  them, 
though  enough  remains  to  witness  to  the  truth  of 
Asser's  eloquent  statement,  that  "  he  would  avail 
himself  of  every  opening  to  ])rocure  lielpers  in  his 
great  designs,  to  aid  him  in  his  strivings  after  wis- 
dom ;  and  like  a  prudent  bird,  which,  rising  in  early- 
morning  from  her  loved  nest,  steers  her  swift  Hight 
through  the  uncertain  tract  of  air,  and  descends  on 
the  manifold  and  varied  Howers  of  grass,  herb,  and 
shrub,  trying  that  which  pleases  most,  that  she  may 
bear  it  to  her  home,  so  did  he  direct  his  eyes  afar, 
and  seek  abroad  that  which  he  had  not  at  home 
within  his  own  kingdom." 

At  the  same  time,  though  he  gathered  round  him 
competent  men  of  aU  nations  and  all  callings,  where- 
ever  he  could  find  them,  Alfred  was  singularly  in- 
dependent of  them,  lie  had  no  indispensable  offi- 
cers. The  work  which  went  on  so  busily  during 
those  years  of  peace,  and  was  transforming  the  life 
of  all  southern  England,  was  his  own  work.  He 
was  not  only  the  insj^irer,  but  in  a  very  real  sense 
the  doer  of  it,  and  there  is  no  name  of  bishop,  sol- 
dier, or  jurist,  which  can  make  good  a  claim  to  any- 
thing more  than  honor  reflected  from  their  great 
King.  In  all  history  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a 
more  striking  example  of  what  one  man  may  do 
for  a  nation  in  the  course  of  a  short  lifetime. 


THE    KINGS    NEIGHBORS. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

THE  king's  neighbors. 

"  Arl  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him  :  all  nations  shall  do  him  service. 
"  For  he  shall  deliver  the  poor  when  he  crieth;  the  needy  also,  and 
him  that  hath  no  helper." 

THE  temjjtation  to  over-govern  is  apt  to  be.set 
rulers  ^vho  have  the  intense  love  of  order  and 
genius  for  organizing  which  distinguished  Alfred. 
It  is  not  easy  for  such  men  to  recognize  the  worth 
of  national  or  local  habits  and  customs,  or  to  resist 
the  temptation  of  imposing  their  own  laws  and 
metliods  upon  races  which  come  under  their  in- 
fluence, and  Christendom  has  suffered  grievously, 
and  is  still  suffering,  from  such  attempts  to  crush 
out  national  life.  The  surroundings  of  Alfred 
were  precisely  those  most  likely  to  have  prompted 
such  a  policy.  In  the  years  of  rest  which  followed 
the  peace  of  Wedinore  the  West  Saxon  kingdom  in- 
creased in  wealth  and  power  so  mpidly  as  complete- 
ly to  overshadow  its  weaker  neighbors.  One  after 
another  they  sought  the  protection  of  Alfred,  and  in 
no  case  was  sucli  protection  refused,  or  any  attempt 
made  to  fasten  on  them  tlie  West  Saxon  code  of 
laws,  or  to  supersede  the  native  government. 

The  old  enemies  of  the  Saxons  and  Angles,  the  Brit- 
ons, who  had  been  forced  Ijack  into  the  Welsh  moun- 
tains, had  maintained  their  independence  against  such 


224  LIFE  OF  ALi-i;i;u  the  great. 

kings  as  Offa  and  Egbert.  Tliere  had  been  constant 
wars  on  the  marshes.  Often  defeated  and  invaded, 
the  Celtic  tribes  had  always  closed  np  behind  the 
retreating  Saxon  armies.  Tliey  had  refused  all  al- 
legiance, and  held  little  peaceable  intercourse  with 
their  stronger  neighbors.  In  the  last  of  the  Saxon 
invasions,  King  Ethelwulf  had  penetrated  to  the 
Isle  of  Anglesea,  and  humbled  Eotri  Mawr  (the 
great  Eoderick),  while  Alfred  was  a  child.  In  re- 
venge, the  Welsh  had  sympathized  with  and  assisted 
the  Dane,  and  had  seriously  added  to  the  peril  of 
the  gi'eat  struggle  of  his  manhood. 

Eotri  Mawr  had  left  six  sons,  turbulent  men  from 
their  youth  up,  of  wliom  tlie  leader,  probably  the 
eldest,  was  Anarant,  who  had  become  the  friend  and 
ally  of  the  Northumbrian  Danes  of  Hal  fdene's  army. 
The  hand  of  these  brethren  was  heavy  on  the  other 
"Welsh  princes  in  those  disturbed  years.  Hemeid, 
prince  of  Demetia,  the  disturber  of  the  prelates  and 
monastery  of  St.  David's,  —  to  appeal  against  whose 
frequent  plunderings  Asser  made  his  pilgrimage 
from  that  quiet  sanctuary  in  "  the  extremest  western 
coasts  of  Britain,"  —  was  the  first  to  open  negotia- 
tions with  Alfred.  He  and  his  people  were  driven 
to  this  appeal  by  the  violence  of  their  northern 
neighbors,  the  six  sons  of  Eotri :  so  they  submitted 
themselves  to  the  dominion  of  the  King,  and  obtained 
his  protection.  Then  Helioed  tlie  son  of  Tendyr, 
the  king  or  chief  of  the  "  Brecheinoc  "  Welsli,  occu- 
pying the  present  county  of  Brecknock  and  neigh- 
boring districts  of  Central  Wales  came  in  and  made 
his  submission,  to  protect  his  people  from  the  same 
turbulent  neighbors.     Further    south    Howell  the 


THK  king's  neighbors.  225 

son  of  Ehys,  and  Brochmail  and  Fernraail,  the  two 
sons  of  Mouric,  vvlio  between  them  held  rule  over  all 
the  tribes  inhabiting  Morganwy  and  Gwent  by  the 
Severn,  and  wliose  country  marched  with  that  of 
Ethelred  of  ^Mercia,  appealed  from  that  energetic 
viceroy  to  King  Alfred,  and  placed  themselves  under 
his  protection.  They  accused  the  King's  son-in-law 
of  violence  and  tyranny ;  and  we  may  readily  un- 
deistand  that  Ethelred's  notions  of  government  were 
of  a  kind  which  would  be  likely  to  bring  about 
frequent  collisions  with  his  neighbors  on  the  oppo- 
site bank  of  the  Severn.  All  of  these  "  gained  the 
love  and  guardianship  "  of  the  great  King  of  the 
AVest  Saxons,  "  and  defence  from  every  quarter,  even 
as  the  King  with  his  men  could  protect  himself." 
So  at  last  Anarant,  the  son  of  Eotri,  with  his  five 
brothers,  finding  that  their  occupation  was  gone, 
and  tliat  the  shield  of  the  great  King  was  cast  over 
all  tlieir  brother  princelings  and  their  possessions, 
"  abandoning  the  friendship  of  the  Northumbrians, 
from  which  they  had  received  harm  only,  came  into 
King  Alfred's  presence  and  eagerly  sought  his  friend- 
ship." This  was  at  once  accorded  to  them  also. 
They  were  honombly  entertained  at  court,  and  Ana- 
rant  was  "  made  Alfred's  son  by  confirmation  from 
the  bishop's  hands,"  and  left  for  his  own  country 
loaded  with  many  gifts.  The  same  terms  of  alle- 
giance were  imposed  on  him  as  on  Ethelred  of  ]\Iercia ; 
and  so,  before  the  year  884,  the  whole  of  Wales  was 
brought  under  Alfred's  sway ;  the  intertribal  wars 
and  plunderings  ceased,  and  the  country  enjoyed 
peace,  and  the  princes  the  friendship  of  their  great 
neighbor,  and  his  assistance  in  all  ways  in  the  im- 
10  •  o 


226        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

provement  of  their  own  people.  Thus  the  old 
wounds  were  closed  for  the  time,  and  the  two  na- 
tions settled  down  in  unaccustomed  peace,  Celt  and 
Saxon  side  by  side,  after  upwards  of  four  centuries 
of  fierce  and  disastrous  warfare.  The  peace  was 
of  short  duration,  but  it  lasted  till  after  Alfred's 
death. 

The  near  relationship  between  the  people  of  the 
kingdoms  of  Mercia  and  Wessex, and  the  old  ri\alry 
between  their  royal*  houses,  must  have  made  the 
task  of  establishing  satisfactory  relations  between 
them,  now  that  the  supremacy  of  the  latter  had 
been  thoroughly  established,  even  more  difficult 
than  in  the  case  of  North  Wales.  The  memories 
of  Peuda  and  Offa,  of  many  battles  won  on  West 
Saxon  soil,  —  even  of  tribute  paid  and  allegiance 
owned,  —  must  still  have  been  fresh  in  Mercia.  But 
Buhred  had  left  no  children,  and  the  most  powerful 
of  the  Mercian  nobles  was  devoted  to  Alfred.  This 
was  Ethelred,  the  earl  of  the  Anglian  tribe  of 
Hwiccas,  who  were  settled  in  the  eastern  parts  of 
Worcestershire  and  Herefordshire,  and  had  been  the 
chief  bulwark  against  the  Welsh.  We  do  not  know 
anything  of  his  earlier  history,  and  cannot  conjec- 
ture therefore  how  so  brave  and  able  a  man,  at  the 
head  of  a  tribe  inured  to  the  constant  warfare  of  the 
marches,  made  no  head  against  Guthrum  and  the 
pagan  army  at  the  time  of  the  Danish  occupation 
of  Mercia.  At  any  rate  he  had  not  forfeited  the 
confidence  and  good-will  of  Alfred,  for  in  the  year 
880,  the  same  in  which  the  Danes  finally  left  their 
camp  at  Cirencester  and  retired  into  East  Anglia, 
Ethelred  was  appointed  alderman  of  Mercia,   and 


THE  king's  neighbors.  227 

acknowledged  allegiance  to  Alfred.  "We  have  a 
charter  of  that  year  signed  by  him  in  that  capacity, 
to  which  is  a})pended  Alfred's  signature  as  his  over- 
lord :  "  I  Alfred,  King,  have  consented  and  sub- 
scribed." In  like  manner,  in  the  year  883,  a  gift  of 
church  lands  by  Alderman  Ethelred  bears  the  in- 
dorsement, "  I  Alfred  confirm  this  gift  with  the  sign 
of  the  holy  cross." 

But  there  is  stronger  proof  of  the  esteem  in 
which  Ethelred  was  held  by  his  king,  in  the  fact 
that  he  became  the  husband  of  Etlielfleda,  Alfred's 
eldest  daughter.  The  date  of  the  marriage  cannot 
be  ascertained,  as  no  notice  of  the  event  occurs  in 
the  Chronicles.  But  even  in  tliose  times,  when 
girls  were  married  at  far  earlier  ages  than  now,  it 
could  scarcely  have  happened  before  882,  for  Alfred 
himself  was  only  married  in  the  autumn  of  868. 
But,  both  before  and  after  his  marriage,  the  same 
energy  in  his  government  and  loyalty  to  his  king 
seems  to  have  distinguished  Ethelred.  Mercia  had 
its  own  witan,  which  was  summoned  more  frequent- 
ly than  that  of  Wessex.  It  was  presided  over  by 
Etlielretl,  and  settled  all  questions  connected  with 
the  internal  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  subject  only  to 
Alfred's  approval.  In  the  report  of  the  session  of 
the  witan  in  896,  already  given,  we  find  the  express 
statement  that  it  was  summoned  "  with  the  knowl- 
edge and  approbation  of  King  Alfred  "  ;  but  neither 
then  nor  in  the  earlier  sessions  of  883  and  886  is 
there  any  trace  of  his  further  interference.  Mercia 
was  left  to  develop  itself  in  its  own  way,  and  under 
its  own  laws.  We  have,  unfortunately,  no  copy  of 
the  code  which  Alfred  caused  to  be  prepared  for  the 


228  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE  GREAT. 

sister  kingdom,  but  the  best  Anglo-Saxon  scholars 
agree  in  liolding  that  the  institutes  of  Offa  were 
embodied  in  it,  as  we  have  seen  that  "  Ina's  dooms  " 
were  incorporated  in  the  West  Saxon  code. 

The  wisdom  of  this  policy  may  be  gathered  from 
results.  The  Saxon  and  Anglian  kingdoms  remained 
distinct,  but  closely  confederated,  and  the  differences 
of  language  and  custom  died  out  rapidly,  thus  pre- 
paring the  way  for  a  still  closer  union.  During 
Ethelred's  life  Mercia  was  consolidated  and  strength- 
ened ;  and  the  Welsh  on  the  one  side,  and  the  East 
Anglians  on  the  other,  felt  a  master's  hand.  On  liis 
death,  in  910,  London  and  Oxford  were  at  once  in- 
corporated in  the  West  Saxon  kingdom,  and  the 
remainder  of  Mercia  nine  years  later,  on  the  death 
of  Ethelfleda. 

In  like  manner  Alfred's  relations  with  the  new 
and  enlarged  kingdom  of  East  Anglia  are  charac- 
terized at  once  by  prudence  and  good  faith.  Until 
the  outbreak  of  another  war  the  boundaries  of 
Guthrum  Athelstan's  kingdom,  as  settled  by  the 
first  short  treaty  of  Wedmore,  were  scrupulously 
respected.  No  attempt  was  made  to  recover  either 
Essex  on  the  south,  or  any  of  that  part  of  ^Mercia 
which  lay  to  the  north  and  east  of  Watling  Street. 
The  only  act  of  sovereignty  on  the  part  of  Alfred 
Avas  the  introduction  into  East  Anglia  of  a  code  of 
laws  similar  in  essence  to  the  West  Saxon  code,  but 
at  the  same  time  carefully  recognizing  and  respect- 
ing differences  springing  from  custom  and  race. 
This  code,  in  fact,  is  the  enlarged  treaty  of  Wed- 
more,  to  which  reference  has  been  already  made. 

In  the  form  in  which  it  has  come  down  to  us  it 


THE  king's  neighbors.  229 

is  called  the  treaty  of  Edward  and  Guthrum,  and 
may  possibly  have  been  formally  agreed  to  after 
Alfred's  death  by  Edward  liis  son  and  Guthrum  II., 
who  is  said  to  have  come  to  the  East  Anglian  throne 
in  905.  However  this  may  be,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  the  substance  of  the  code  was  in  force 
before  the  death  of  Guthrum  Athelstan  in  890,  for 
the  preamble  begins :  "  These  are  the  dooms  which 
King  Alfred  and  King  Guthrum  chose,"  and  declares 
that  the  same  had  been  repeatedly  ratified  between 
the  Saxons  and  Danes.  The  diflerences  between 
the  two  codes  are  gi'eater  in  appearance  than  reality. 
Thus  the  code  for  the  Danish  kingdom  has  one 
doom  only  in  substitution  for  the  whole  Decalogue, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  Levitical  laws,  which  are 
set  out  in  the  West  Saxon  code.  This  sweeping 
doom  declares  that  "  the  people  shall  love  one  God 
only,  and  zealously  renounce  every  kind  of  heathen- 
dom." The  remainder  of  the  code  is  taken  up 
with  declarations  of  right,  and  lists  of  penalties, 
founded  on  the  same  principles,  and  inflicted  for 
the  same  classes  of  offences,  as  those  in  Alfred's 
dooms.  The  double  liability  of  every  law-breaker 
to  the  temporal  and  spiritual  power  —  the  necessity 
for  making  amends  to  the  Church,  as  well  as  to  the 
Crown  and  the  kin  of  the  injured  man  —  is  enforced 
througliout.  In  the  same  way  the  rights  of  the 
several  classes  of  society  are  valued  according  to 
the  amount  of  their  property  ;  but  in  each  case  the 
division  of  race  is  also  recognized,  the  Saxon  paying 
"  were  "  and  "  wite,"  the  Dane  "  lahslit."  The  only 
difference  of  note  is  the  greater  amount  of  protec- 
tion which  the  Danish  code  endeavors   to    throw 


230  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

over  priests  and  foreigners.  Thus  Article  XII. 
enacts  that  "  if  any  man  wrong  an  ecclesiastic,  or 
foreigner,  as  to  money  or  life,  the  king,  or  earl,  or 
bishop  shall  be  to  him  in  place  of  a  kinsman  ;  and 
let  boot  be  strictly  made  according  as  the  deed  may 
be,  to  Christ,  and  to  the  king ;  or  let  him  avenge 
the  deed  very  deeply  who  is  king  among  the  people." 
This  distinction  may  have  arisen  from  the  necessity 
of  shielding  Christian  clergy,  in  those  parts  where 
the  majority  of  the  people  w^ere  still  Pagans,  who 
remembered  the  sack  and  burning  of  the  monas- 
teries ;  and  from  the  desire  of  Alfred  to  encourage 
intercourse  between  his  own  immediate  subjects  and 
the  East  Anglians. 

After  a  few  restless  years,  ending  in  the  outbreak 
of  885,  when  Alfred's  fleet  crossed  from  Eochester 
to  avenge  the  breach  of  peace  by  the  seafaring  por- 
tion of  Guthrum  Athelstan's  people,  that  prince 
seems  to  have  kept  faith  with  his  overlord,  and 
to  have  lived  quietly  at  home.  Whether  his  con- 
version was  sincere  or  not  we  cannot  tell ;  but  cer- 
tainly, under  the  influence  of  the  treaty-code,  and 
the  intercourse  with  the  neighboring  kingdoms,  and 
with  the  remnants  of  the  old  Anglian  stock  which 
remained  within  their  borders,  the  Danes,  who 
dwelt  in  all  the  central  counties  bordering  on  ^Yat- 
ling  Street,  became  a  Christian  people.  In  890 
Guthrum  Athelstan  died,  and  was  buried  at  Thet- 
ford.  He  was  succeeded  by  one  Eohric,  a  North- 
man, under  whom  the  Danes  settled  on  the  coasts 
of  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  Essex  appear  to  have  re- 
turned to  their  old  piratical  habits,  if  not  to  heathen- 
ism, and  to  have  made  common  cause  with  Hast- 


THE    KING  b   NEIGHBORS.  2'6i 

ing  in  his  great  invasion  of  England.  But  even 
after  the  defeat  of  the  last  great  viking  the  policy 
of  Alfred  remained  unchanged.  "With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  "western  •  portion  of  Essex,  wliich  he  in- 
corpomted  in  ^lercia  for  the  protection  of  London, 
the  boundaries  of  East  Anglia  were  left  as  they  had 
been  settled  by  the  treaty  of  Wedmore. 

The  Xorthumbrian  kingdom  can  scarcely  be 
reckoned  amongst  tlie  neighbors  of  Wessex,  but 
even  there  Alfred's  influence  was  acknowledged. 
After  the  death  of  Halfdene,  Gutbrid,  said  to  have 
been  a  son  of  Hardicanute,  king  of  Denmark,  suc- 
ceeded. He  was  a  Christian,  and  became  the  firm 
ally  of  Alfred,  who  assisted  him  in  the  restoration 
of  the  Church  of  Durham,  and  contributed,  out  of 
that  eighth  of  his  income  which  was  set  apart  for 
these  purposes,  to  the  needs  of  other  churches  and 
servants  of  God  dwelling  in  Xorthumbria.  Un- 
broken peace  was  maintained  between  the  two  king- 
doms during  all  Alfred's  days. 

Kent  and  Sussex  were  mere  appanages  of  Wessex 
before  Alfred  came  to  the  throne,  but  had  not  until 
now  been  thoroughly  incorporated.  This  was  now 
done.  Instead  of  a  cadet  of  the  royal  family  of 
Cerdic  ruling  as  king  in  one  or  the  other  of  them, 
as  Ethelwulf  and  Athelstan  had  done,  they  were 
now  placed  under  Alfred's  aldermen,  and  were  sub- 
ject, no  doubt,  to  the  same  burdens,  and  entitled  to 
the  same  privileges,  as  "Wiltshire  or  Berkshire.  At 
the  same  time  local  traditions  and  customs  were  re- 
spected, such  as  gavelkind,  which  remains  in  Kent 
to  this  day. 

Thus  the  King  lived,  in  perfect  amity  with  his 


232  LIFE    OF    ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

neighbors,  and  without  a  thought  of  abusing  his  su- 
perior strength.  No  soldier  of  Alfred's  ever  drew 
sword  except  in  defence  of  his  own  home  and 
country.  He  even  put  a  check  on  his  energetic 
son-in-law^  Ethelred  of  ]\Iercia,  when  his  hand  was 
beginning  to  be  felt  too  heavily  by  the  peoj)le  of 
Xorth  Wales.  No  great  soldier  had  ever  more 
plausible  pretexts  for  despoiling  his  neighbors.  All 
his  boundaries  towards  the  north  and  east  wanted 
rectifying,  and  occasions  for  quarrel  with  the  East 
Anglians,  and  Welsh,  and  Xorthumbrians  were 
never  far  to  seek.  But  in  his  eyes  strength  and 
power  were  simply  trusts,  to  be  used  by  their  pos- 
sessors for  the  benefit  of  the  weak.  This  was  liis 
reading  of  the  will  and  meaning  of  the  King  Mho 
commanded  him,  and  he  acted  on  it  with  a  single 
mind,  exercising  a  forbearance  and  moderation  in 
his  wars,  negotiations,  and  treaties,  for  which  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  a  parallel. 

Indeed,  one  is  at  times  inclined  to  be  impatient 
of  his  great  patience ;  to  think  that  for  his  people's 
sake  his  hand  should  have  been  heavier  upon  Guth- 
rum  and  Hasting,  w'hen  they  w^ere  in  his  power ; 
to  wish  that  he  had  not  left  the  task  of  incorporating 
all  England  in  one  kingdom  to  his  successors.  AVe 
are  all  tempted  in  our  secret  hearts  to  believe  that 
the  great  Italian  was  right  in  putting  mercy,  cour- 
teousness,  truthfulness,  in  the  category  of  luxuries 
which  princes  can  only  afford  to  use  with  the  most 
guarded  moderation. 

"The  present  manner  of  living,"  jNIachiavelli 
wTites  (cap.  xiv.),  "is  so  different  from  the  way 
that  ought  to  be  taken,  that  he  who  neglects  what 


THE  king's  neighbors.  238 

is  done  to  follow  what  ought  to  be  done  will  sooner 
learn  liow  to  ruin  than  how  to  preserve  himself. 
For  a  tender  man,  and  one  that  desires  to  be  honest 
in  everything,  nmst  needs  run  a  great  hazard  among 
so  many  of  a  contrary  principle.  Wherefore  it  is 
necessary  for  a  prince  that  is  willing  to  subsist  to 
harden  liimself,  and  learn  to  be  good  or  otherwise 
according  to  the  exigencies  of  his  affairs."  And 
again  (cap.  xix.),  "  How  honorable  it  is  for  a  prince 
to  keep  his  word,  and  act  rather  with  integrity  than 
craft,  I  suppose  every  one  understands.  Neverthe- 
less experience  has  shown  in  our  times  that  those 
princes  who  have  not  pinned  themselves  up  to  that 
punctuality  and  preciseness  have  done  great  things, 
and  by  their  cunning  and  subtlety  not  only  circum- 
vented and  pierced  the  brains  of  those  with  whom 
they  had  to  deal,  but  have  overcome  and  been  too 
hard  for  those  wlio  have  been  so  superstitiously  ex- 
act. Nor  was  there  ever  any  prince  that  wanted 
lawful  pretence  to  justify  his  breach  of  promise. 
And  men  are  so  simple  in  their  temper,  and  so  sub- 
missive to  their  present  necessities,  that  he  that  is 
neat  and  cleanly  in  his  collusions  shall  never  want 
people  to  practise  them  upon.  A  prince,  therefore, 
is  not  obliged  to  have  all  the  fore-mentioned  good 
qualities  in  reality,  but  it  is  necessary  to  have  them 
in  appearance ;  nay,  I  will  be  bold  to  affirm,  that 
having  them  actually,  and  employing  them  on  all 
occasions,  they  are  extremely  prejudicial.  AVliereas, 
having  them  only  in  appearance,  they  turn  to 
better  account.  It  is  honorable  to  seem  mild,  and 
merciful,  and  courteous,  and  religious,  and  sincere, 
and  indeed   to  be   so,  provided  your  mind  be  so 


234  LIFE    OF   ALFKKD    THE    GHEAT. 

rectified  and  prepared  that  you  can  act  quite  con- 
trary on  occasion." 

But  the  more  attentively  we  study  Alfred's  life, 
the  more  clearly  does  the  practical  wisdom  of  his 
methods  of  government  justify  itself  by  results.  Of 
strong  princes,  with  minds  "  rectified  and  prepared  " 
on  the  JNIachiavellian  model,  the  world  has  had  more 
than  enough,  who  have  won  kingdoms  for  themselves, 
and  used  them  for  themselves,  and  so  lelt  a  bitter 
inheritance  to  their  children  and  their  people.  It 
is  well  that,  here  and  there  in  history,  we  can  point 
to  a  king  whose  reign  has  proved  that  the  high- 
est success  in  government  is  not  only  compatible 
with,  but  dependent  upon,  the  highest  Christian 
morality. 


THE  Ki:^GS   FOE.  2'6ij 


CHAPTER    XX. 

THE   king's   foe. 

"  Frowardness  is  in  his  heart,  he  deviseth  mischief  continually;  he 

soweth  discord. 
"Therefore  shall  his  calamity  conne  suddenly;  suddenly  shall  he  be 

broken  without  remedy." 

IN  the  middle  of  his  great  reforms,  when  all  Eng- 
land was  thrilling  with  new  life,  and  order  and 
light  were  beginning  to  penetrate  into  the  most  out- 
of-the-way  cornei-s  of  the  kingdom,,  the  war-cloud 
gathered  again,  and  Alfred  had  once  more  to  arm. 
It  was  against  the  old  enemy,  "  the  army,"  as  the 
chroniclers  style  it,  —  what  \\iis  left  of  it,  at  least, 
after  three  years  of  precarious  fighting  and  plunder- 
ing in  France  and  Flanders,  with  a  huge  accession 
of  recruits  from  the  wild  spirits  of  all  the  tribes 
whose  struggles  were  distracting  Europe.  The  anxi- 
ety with  which  the  English  watched  their  old  foes 
appeal's  from  the  care  with  which  their  doings  are 
noted  year  by  year  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle.  Pleg- 
mund,  or  whoever  was  the  editor,  had  clearly  an 
uneasy  feeling  that  Alfred  and  his  realm  had  not 
seen  the  last  of  them.  So  we  hear  how  they  went 
np  the  iMeuse,  and  plundered  from  the  Meuse  to  the 
Scheldt,  and  from  thence  crossed  to  Amiens  in  884, 
the  year  that  Pope  Martin  of  blessed  memory  died. 
In  the  next  year  Charles  the  Bald  was  killed  by  a 
wild  boar  while   hunting,  and  his  death  was  the 


236  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

signal  for  renewed  activity  amongst  the  Xorthmen. 
Another  great  fleet  and  army  of  Pagans  now  came 
from  Germany  into  the  country  of  the  Old  Saxons, 
and  were  there  defeated  in  two  battles.  We  have 
already  seen  how  a  division  of  "  the  army  "  in  the 
same  year  tried  their  fortune  in  Kent,  and  went 
back  to  the  Continent  wiser  and  poorer  pirates. 

In  886  "  the  army,"  reunited  again,  sailed  and 
marched  up  the  Seine,  and  laid  siege  to  Paris,  or 
rather  to  the  island  on  which  lay  all  that  was  left 
of  the  city.  For  a  wliole  year  the  Xorthmen  lay 
about  Paris,  but  "  by  the  merciful  favor  of  God,  and 
the  brave  defence  of  the  citizens,  cculd  never  force 
their  way  inside  the  walls."  Indeed,  it  would  seem 
that  they  never  wrested  the  bridge  from  the  be- 
sieged. At  the  end  of  a  year  the  siege  was  aban- 
oned,  and  "  the  army,"  passing  under  the  bridge, 
which  they  had  failed  to  destroy  or  take,  went  up 
the  Seine  to  it«  junction  with  the  ^larne,  and  then 
up  that  river  as  far  as  Chezy,  where  they  formed  one 
of  their  fortified  camps.  In  the  following  year,  on 
the  death  of  Charles  (nephew  of  Charles  the  Bald), 
the  unhappy  kingdom  of  the  Franks  was  broken 
into  five  portions,  Amulf  his  nephew,  who  had 
in  fact  usurped  the  throne  in  the  last  few  Aveeks  of 
his  uncle's  life,  keeping  the  Ehine  provinces,  with 
the  nominal  title  of  Emperor.  The  new  kings  were 
soon  quarrelling,  and,  as  the  Saxon  Chronicle  re- 
cords, "held  their  lands  in  great  discord,  and  fought 
two  general  battles,  and  oft  and  many  times  laid 
waste  the  country,  and  each  repeatedly  drove  out 
the  other." 

Thus  the  descendants,  legitimate  and  illegitimate. 


THE   KINGS   FOE.  237 

of  Charlemagne  fought  over  the  shreds  of  his  mon- 
ster empire,  exhausting  its  strength  in  their  selfish 
struggles  ("  battles  of  the  kites  and  crows,"  as  Mil- 
ton contemptuously  summed  up  the  history  of  simi- 
lar doings  on  the  smaller  arena  of  England,  amongst 
the  Saxon  princes  in  the  previous  century),  while, 
on  every  frontier,  Saracens,  Hungarians,  and  Scan- 
dinavians were  hemming  it  in,  and  cutting  it  short. 
In  the  very  heart  of  it  a  host  of  Northmen  were 
holding  the  richest  portions,  and  carrying  rapine  and 
insult  to  the  gates  of  the  city  where,  only  fifty  years 
before,  the  Paladins  of  Charlemagne  had  been  hold- 
ing their  great  pageants. 

The  miseries  of  the  next  few  years  in  those  fair 
lands  are  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  modern  his- 
tory. In  891,  however,  Arnulf  had  established 
his  own  authority  in  the  Rhine  provinces,  and  was 
able  to  gatlier  a  strong  army  of  Eastern  Franks, 
Saxons,  and  Bavarians,  and  lead  them  against  the 
common  enemy.  After  some  reverses,  he  surprised 
the  Danes  in  the  neighborliood  of  Louvaine,  and  de- 
feated them  so  signally  that  the  Low  Countries  were 
cleared  of  them  altogether,  and  suffered  no  further, 
except  from  occasional  flying  visits  of  a  few  galleys. 
The  renmants  of  the  broken  bands  fled  southward, 
attracted  towards  "  the  army  ",of  Hasting,  who  was 
now  holding  the  town  of  Amiens,  and  living  on  the 
neighboring  districts,  having  defeated  Odo,  the  king 
of  the  "Western  Franks,  in  several  attempts  to  dis- 
lodge him.  Another  year  of  Danish  occupation 
brought  a  terrible  famine  on  the  whole  country,  and 
efl"ected  that  iii  which  King  Odo  had  tailed.  Hast- 
ing could  hold  Amiens  no  longer,  and  moved  with 


238        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

"  the  army  "  to  the  coast,  eucamping  about  Boulogne ; 
to  which  place  also  gravitated  the  remains  of  the 
host  which  had  escaped  from  Louvaine,  and  no 
doubt  all  the  rascaldom  of  the  empire.  It  is  prob- 
able that  Hasting's  communications  with  his  coun- 
trymen on  tlie  Norfolk  and  Suffolk  coasts  had  never 
been  interrupted,  and  that  the  old  pirate  knew  well 
how  rich  and  prosperous  the  island  had  become 
since  he  had  sailed  away  from  Fulham  some  thir- 
teen years  before.  He  knew  also  something  of  the 
strength  and  temper  of  the  King  whom  he  would 
have  to  meet  there,  and,  had  a  choice  been  open  to 
him,  would  doubtless  have  preferred  some  other  ven- 
ture. But  behind  him  lay  a  famine-stricken  land  ; 
round  him  a  larger  muster  of  reckless  fightei-s  than 
any  he  had  yet  led ;  before  him,  within  sight,  at  an 
easy  day's  sail,  the  shores  of  a  land  on  which  no 
hostile  foot  had  been  planted  for  eight  long  years. 
So  there,  on  the  cliffs  above  Boulogne,  Hasting,  like 
a  leader  of  the  same  type  in  the  hi'st  years  of  tliis 
nineteenth  century,  planned  the  invasion  of  Alfred's 
kingdom,  and  waited  for  a  favorable  autumn  M'ind 
to  carry  over  his  fleet. 

Such  are,  briefly,  the  details  which  we  gather 
from  the  chroniclers  of  the  events  which  preceded, 
and  brouglit  about,  tlje  third  ^eat  invasion  which 
Alfred  had  to  meet. 

His  great  antagonist  in  thLs  last  war  was  already 
in  the  decline  of  life,  and  had  grown  gray  in  crime. 
Of  all  the  leaders  of  the  hosts  of  heathen  North- 
men, who  were  the  scourge  of  AVestern  Europe  in 
the  ninth  century,  he  stands  out  as  the  most  ruth- 
less and  false,  as  well  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  most 


THE  king's  foe.  239 

successful.  "  The  worst  man  that  ever  was  born, 
and  wlio  has  done  most  harm  in  our  age,"  is  the 
sunimary  of  his  character  and  career  in  the  old 
French  chronicler :  — 

"  Le  plus  mal  Iiom  qui  une  nasquist, 
E  qui  al  siecle  plus  mal  fist." 

We  know  something  already  of  his  later  life  since 
879.  The  story  of  his  earlier  doings  owes  probably 
much  of  its  romance  to  the  rhyming  chroniclers  who 
sung  of  his  atrocities,  but  is  clear  enough  in  general 
outline  to  claim  a  place  in  history,  and  a  moment's 
attention  from  those  who  would  rightly  appreciate 
our  hero-king. 

The  great  and  indecisive  battle  of  Fontenoy  near 
Auxerre,  where  the  grandsons  of  Charlemagne 
brouglit  their  rival  claims  to  the  decision  of  the 
sword  in  the  year  841,  exhausted  the  empire,  and 
left  it  open  to  the  onslaughts  of  the  Northmen, 
and  the  freebooters  of  all  races  who  swelled  their 
ranks.  Within  five  years  of  that  great  slaughter  a 
formidable  army  of  these  maraudei-s  were  already 
in  the  heart  of  France,  and  had  sacked  and  burnt 
the  town  of  Amboise,  and  plundered  the  district 
between  the  Loire  and  Cher.  About  the  year  of 
Alfred's  birth  they  laid  siege  to  Tours,  from  which 
they  were  repulsed  by  the  gallantry  of  the  citizens, 
assisted  by  the  miraculous  aid  of  Saint  Martin.  It 
is  at  this  siege  that  Hasting  first  appears  as  a 
leader. 

His  birth  is  uncertain.  In  some  accounts  he  is 
said  to  have  been  the  son  of  a  peasant  of  Troyes, 
the  capital  of  Champagne,  and  to  have  forsworn  his 
faith,  and  joined  the  Danes  in  his  early  youth,  from 


24U  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

an  inherent  lust  of  battle  and  i^hmder.  In  others 
he  is  called  the  son  of  the  jarl  Atte.  But,  wliat- 
ever  his  origin,  by  the  middle  of  the  century  he  had 
established  his  title  to  lead  the  Xorthern  hordes  in 
those  fierce  forays  wliich  lielped  to  shatter  the  Car- 
lovingian  Empire  to  fragments.  After  the  retreat 
from  Tours  he  and  the  Viking  Biorn  —  surnamed 
"  Cote  de  Fer  "  from  an  iron  plate  wliich  was  said 
to  cover  the  only  vulnerable  part  of  his  body  —  es- 
tablished themselves  in  a  fortified  camp  on  the 
Seine,  and  from  thence  plundered  the  whole  of  the 
neighboring  country,  until  it  was  too  exhausted  to 
maintain  them  longer.  When  the  banks  of  the 
Seine  were  exhausted,  the  leaders  separated,  and, 
while  Biorn  pushed  up  the  river  again,  Hasting  put 
out  to  sea,  entered  the  Loire,  and  established  a  camp 
on  a  marshy  island  not  far  from  its  mouth.  Here  he 
remained  for  some  time,  fulfilling  his  mission  while 
anything  was  left  to  plunder.  When  the  land  was 
bare,  leaving  the  despoiled  provinces  he  again  put 
to  sea,  and,  sailing  southwards  still,  pushed  up  the 
Tagus  and  Guadalquiver,  and  ravaged  the  neighbor- 
hoods of  Lisbon  and  Seville.  But  no  settlement  in 
Spain  was  possible  at  this  time.  The  Peninsula  had 
lately  had  for  Caliph  Abdalraliman  the  Second, 
called  El  Mouzaffer,  "  The  Victorious,"  and  the 
vigor  of  his  rule  had  made  the  Arabian  kingdom 
in  Spain  the  most  efficient  power  for  defence  in 
Europe.  Hasting  soon  recoiled  from  the  Spanish 
coasts,  and  returned  to  his  old  haunts. 

The  leaders  of  the  Danes  in  England,  the  Sidrocs 
and  Hinguar  and  Hubba,  had,  as  we  have  seen,  a 
special  delight  in  the  destruction  of  churches  and 


THE  king's  foe.  241 

monasteries,  mingling  a  fierce  religious  fanaticism 
with  their  thirst  for  battle  and  plunder.  This  ex- 
ceeding bitterness  of  the  Northmen  may  be  fairly 
laid  in  great  measure  to  the  account  of  the  thirty 
years  of  proselytizing  warfare  which  Charlemagne 
had  waged  in  Saxony,  and  along  all  the  northern 
frontier  of  his  empire.  The  boldest  spirits  amongst 
all  those  German  tribes,  who  scorned  to  turn  rene- 
gades at  the  sword's  point,  had  drifted  away  north- 
wards with  a  tradition  of  deepest  hatred  to  the 
Cross  and  the  forms  of  civilization  which  it  carried 
in  its  wake.  The  time  for  vengeance  came  before 
one  generation  had  died  out,  and  the  fairest  prov- 
inces of  the  empire  were  now  paying,  by  the  burn- 
ing of  churches,  the  sack  of  abbeys,  the  destruction 
of  libraries,  and  the  blood  of  their  children,  for  the 
merciless  proselytizing  of  the  imperial  armies.  The 
brood  of  so-called  religious  wars  have  brought  more 
ills  on  the  poor  old  world  than  all  othere  that  have 
ever  been  hatched  on  her  broad  and  patient  bosom, 
—  a  brood  that  never  misses  coming  home  to  roost. 

Hasting  seems  to  have  been  filled  with  a  double 
portion  of  this  spirit,  which  he  had  indulged 
throughout  his  career  in  the  most  inveterate  hatred 
to  priests  and  holy  places.  It  was  probably  this, 
coupled  with  a  certain  weariness,  —  commonplace 
murder  and  sacrilege  having  grown  tame,  and  lost 
their  charm,  —  which  incited  him  to  the  most  dar- 
ing of  all  his  exploits,  a  direct  attack  on  the  head 
of  Christendom,  and  the  sacred  city. 

Hasting  then,  about  the  year  860,  planned  an  at- 
tack on  Rome,  and  the  proposal  was  well  received 
by  his  followers.  Sailing  again  round  Spain,  and 
11  p 


242  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

pillaging  on  their  way  both  on  the  Spanish  and 
Moorish  coasts,  they  entered  the  Mediterranean, 
and,  steering  for  Italy,  landed  in  the  bay  of  Spez- 
zia,  near  the  town  of  Luna.  Luna  was  the  place 
where  the  great  quarries  of  the  Carrara  marble  had 
been  worked  ever  since  the  times  of  the  C*sars. 
The  city  itself  w^as,  it  is  said,  in  great  part  built 
of  white  marble,  and  the  candcntia  mcenia  Lunce 
deceived  Hasting  into  the  belief  that  he  was  actual- 
ly before  Eome ;  so  he  sat  down  before  the  town 
which  he  had  failed  to  surprise.  The  hope  of  tak- 
ing it  by  assault  was  soon  abandoned,  but  Hasting 
obtained  his  end  by  guile.  Feigning  a  mortal  ill- 
ness, he  sent  messages  to  the  citizens  offering  to 
leave  all  his  accumulated  plunder  to  the  Church  if 
they  would  allow  his  burial  in  consecrated  ground. 
The  offer  was  accepted,  and  a  procession  of  North- 
men, bearing  and  following  the  bier  of  Hasting,  was 
admitted  within  the  walls.  The  rites  of  the  Church 
were  duly  performed,  but,  at  the  moment  when  the 
body  was  about  to  be  lowered  into  the  grave,  Hast- 
ing sprang  from  the  bier,  and,  seizing  a  SM'ord  which 
had  been  concealed  near  him,  slew  the  officiating 
bishop.  His  followers  found  their  arms  at  the  same 
moment;  the  priests  were  massacred,  the  gates 
thrown  open,  and  the  city  taken  and  spoiled.  Luna 
never  recovered  its  old  prosperity  after  the  raid  of 
the  Northmen,  and  in  Dante's  time  had  fallen  into 
utter  decay.  But  Hasting's  career  in  Italy  ended 
with  the  sack  of  Luna ;  and,  giving  up  all  hope  of 
attacking  Eome,  he  re-embarked  with  the  spoil  of 
the  town,  the  most  beautiful  of  the  women,  and  all 
youths  who  could  be  used  as  soldiers  or  rowers. 


THE  king's  foe.  243 

His  fleet  was  \\Tecked  on  the  south  coasts  of  France 
on  its  return  westward,  and  all  the  spoil  lost ;  but 
the  devil  had  work  yet  for  Hasting  and  his  men, 
wlio  got  ashore  in  sufficient  numbers  to  recompense 
themselves  for  their  losses  by  the  plunder  of  Provence. 

In  these  parts  he  remained  until  863.  In  that 
year  he  received  an  embassy  from  Charles  the  Bald, 
headed  by  the  Abbot  of  St.  Denis,  and  agreed  to 
receive  baptism  for  a  large  sum  of  money,  and  the 
cession  to  him  in  fee  of  the  district  of  Chartres, 
which  he  was  to  hold  as  the  king's  vassal.  He 
seems  now  to  have  lived  quietly  till  the  year  876, 
when  he  joined  the  army  which  diaries  the  Simple 
was  sending  against  Eollo.  Hasting  undertook  a 
mission  to  the  camp  of  his  brother  pirate  on  the 
banks  of  the  Eure,  bearing  the  king's  offer  of  fiefs, 
and  a  permanent  settlement  to  the  Danish  leader 
and  his  army.  His  mission  was  unsuccessful,  and 
finding  himself  suspected  of  foul  dealing,  and  in 
consequent  danger,  on  his  return  to  the  French 
army,  he  left  his  adopted  home,  and  returned  to 
his  old  life.  How  he  had  spent  the  intervening 
years  we  have  partly  heard  already. 

Guthrum,  his  old  companion  in  arms,  died  in  890, 
and  a  feeling  of  restlessness  and  rebellion  against 
the  steady,  constant  pressure  of  the  orderly  king- 
dom of  their  liege  lord  was  creeping  through  the 
coasts  of  East  Anglia  which  were  most  remote  from 
Alfred's  border.  Eoliric  was  either  unable  or  un- 
willing to  restrain  the  seafaring  portion  of  his  peo- 
ple ;  and  so  the  encouragement  was  giv-en  to  Hast- 
ing and  "the  army"  which  brought  them  eighteen 
months  later  to  tlie  hills  above  Boulogne,  and  cost 
England  and  Alfred  three  years  of  war. 


244  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

THE   THIRD   WAVE. 

"  Associate  yourselves,  and  ye  shall  be  broken  in  pieces  ;  gather 
yourselves  together,  and  it  shall  come  to  naught:  for  God  is  with 
us." 

IN  the  autumn  of  893  the  great  army  broke  up 
from  its  Boulogne  camp.  Hasting  had  now 
matured  all  his  plans,  and  collected  a  fleet  large 
enough  to  transport  the  whole  of  liis  troops  across 
the  narrow  sea.  The  ships,  Ethelwerd  says,  were 
built  at  Boulogne ;  at  any  rate  they  were  procured  by 
some  means  in  such  abundance,  that  when  the  .army 
embarked,  "  they  came  over  in  one  passage,  hoi-ses 
and  alL"  The  first  detachment,  filling  250  ships, 
w^ere  sent  on  by  Hasting  to  seize  the  nearest  point. 
They  steered  straight  across  the  Channel,  and  landed 
without  opposition  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  river 
Eother,  about  seven  miles  west  of  Dungeness.  Tlie 
Chronicles  call  the  river  Limen  (or  Lymne) ;  but 
the  position  of  Appledore,  the  undoubted  site  of 
the  first  Danish  camp  of  this  year,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Rother,  seems  to  decide  the  question  as  to  the 
identity  of  the  stream  up  which  "  they  towed  tlieir 
ships  for  four  miles,  to  the  bordei*s  of  the  Andreds 
"Weald."  Tliis  was  a  forest,  120  miles  long  and 
thirty  miles  in  breadth,  stretching  from  Romney 
Marsh  to  the  eastern  part  of  Hampshire.  Here  the 
Danes  stormed  a  small  fort  ganisoned  by  a  few 


THK   THIUI)   WAVE.  245 

churlish  men,  and,  without  encountering  further  re- 
sistance, fixed  upon  Appledore  as  the  site  for  a  per- 
manent camp,  which  they  forthwith  set  to  work  to 
establish. 

Hasting  himseK  was  not  long  after  them.  He 
sailed  with  his  own  immediate  followers,  in  eighty 
ships,  passed  up  the  Channel,  round  the  North 
Foreland,  and  into  the  East  Swale,  the  branch  of  tlie 
Medway  which  separates  the  Isle  of  Sheppey  from 
the  mainland.  Some  ten  miles  up  the  Swale  a  little 
creek  runs  south,  on  which  the  market-town  of  Mil- 
ton, celebrated  for  its  native  oysters,  now  stands. 
This  is,  no  doubt,  the  Middleton  of  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  where  Hasting  now  "  wrought  himself  a 
strong  fortress."  Remains  of  fortifications  in  the 
neighboring  marshes  are  still  pointed  out  as  the 
work  of  the  Danes.  Between  the  two  camps,  which 
would  be  some  twenty-six  miles  apart  as  the  crow 
flies,  lay  the  Andreds  "Weald,  offering  immediate 
shelter  in  the  event  of  a  reverse  to  either  wing  of 
the  army,  and  direct  communication  with  the  camp 
of  their  comrades.  Through  the  recesses  of  the 
great  wood  they  could  penetrate  westward  into  the 
heart  of  Wessex,  and  approach  within  a  few  miles 
of  Winchester  or  Reading  without  quitting  cover. 
Both  camps  were  established  on  the  banks  of  rivers, 
navigable  to  the  Danish  galleys,  so  that,  if  the  worst 
came,  there  were  always  means  of  retreat  for  any 
who  might  escape.  This  position  was  a  very  for- 
midable one,  and  admirably  chosen  for  the  ends 
Hasting  had  in  view.  The  strength  of  the  camps 
themselves  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  Alfred  never 
attempted  to  storm  either  of  them. 


246        LIFE  OF  ALFKED  THE  GREAT. 

The  King  was  now  in  his  forty-fifth  year,  and  had 
learnt  much  in  the  wars  of  his  youth  and  early  man- 
hood. As  we  might  expect,  the  tactics  and  method 
of  defence  adopted  by  him  in  his  mature  years  offer 
a  marked  contrast  to  the  impetuous  gallantry  of  his 
early  campaigns.  His  first  act  seems  to  have  been, 
to  send  his  son  Edward,  with  some  light  troops,  to 
the  neighborhood  of  the  two  camps,  more  for  the 
purpose  of  watching  than  fighting ;  his  next  to 
strengthen  the  garrisons  of  his  forts.  Then,  putting 
himself  at  the  head  of  that  portion  of  his  subjects 
whose  turn  it  was  for  military  service,  he  marched 
into  Kent,  and  took  up  a  strong  position,  from  whence 
he  could  best  watch  both  the  camps.  The  name 
of  the  place  where  Alfred  laid  out  his  camp  is  not 
given  in  any  chronicler.  Possibly  it  was  actually 
in  the  Andreds  "Weald,  and  had  no  name,  for  it  is 
described  (by  Florence  of  Worcester)  as  "  a  place 
naturally  very  strong,  because  it  was  surrounded  on 
all  sides  by  water,  high  rocks,  and  overhanging 
woods."  And  now  at  once  the  value  of  the  King's 
army  reforms  became  clear.  The  Danes  felt  the 
presence  of  a  foe  stronger  and  better  disciplined 
than  themselves,  whose  vigilance  was  unceasing. 
The  watching  army  never  dwindled,  and  the  invaders 
dared  not  leave  their  intrenchments  except  in  small 
bands.  These,  however,  were  active  and  mischiev- 
ous. They  stole  out  for  plunder  "  along  the  weald  in 
bands  and  troops,  by  whichever  border  was  for  the 
time  without  forces."  Then  the  alarm  would  be 
given  by  the  Etheling  Edward,  and  the  marauders 
were  "  sought  out  by  bands  from  the  King's  army, 
or  from  the   burghs."     Thus   a  desultory  warfare 


THE  THIRD   WAVE.  247 

continued  "almost  every  day,  either  by  day  or 
night,"  as  the  Saxon  Chronicle  describes  it,  until 
the  theatre  of  war  is  suddenly  and  completely 
changed,  and  tlie  head-quarters  of  both  sides,  and 
the  scene  of  operations,  pass  over  to  the  north  of 
the  Thames. 

It  was  now  nearly  a  year  from  Ilasting's  landing, 
and  no  help  had  come  to  him  as  yet  from  the  Danes 
settled  in  East  Anglia  and  Northumbria.  It  is  clear 
that  lie  had  been  intriguing  with  them,  for  Alfred 
had  had  to  exact  a  renewal  of  their  oaths,  and  even 
to  take  fresh  hostages  from  the  East  Angles.  Now, 
as  the  desultory  war  dragged  on,  week  after  week, 
and  month  after  month,  the  Danes  of  the  northern 
kingdom  got  more  restless  and  excited,  and  Hasting, 
hoping  much  from  this  rekindling  of  the  old  race- 
hatred, and  seeing  no  chance  of  doing  anything  more 
in  his  present  position,  resolved  to  abandon  his  two 
camps  on  the  south  of  the  Thames,  and  cross  into 
East  Anglia.  He  had  never  ventured  yet  out  of  his 
fortified  camps  in  force ;  but,  now  that  the  change 
of  base  had  been  determined  on,  it  was  worth  while 
playing  for  a  large  stake.  Accordingly,  Hasting 
sent  off  his  ships  to  a  rendezvous  at  Bemfleet,  on 
the  Essex  coast,  and,  starting  with  the  whole  of  his 
land-forces,  pushed  by  Alfred's  camp,  through  the 
forest,  and  into  Hampshire,  where  he  met  one  of  his 
marauding  parties,  laden  with  spoil.  "With  this 
booty,  and  what  he  could  gather  himself  in  his  rapid 
march,  he  now  turned  northwards,  hoping  to  get  to 
the  fords  of  the  Thames  before  Alfred  could  over- 
take him.  In  this  he  was  disappointed.  The  King 
and  the  Etheling  Edward  caught  the  Danish  army 


248  LIFE    UF    ALIUED    THE    GREAT. 

at  Faniliam,  and  forced  them  to  fight.  lu  this  fii-st 
general  action  of  the  war  the  Saxons  were  completely 
victorious.  Hastings  army  lost  the  whole  of  their 
plunder,  and  the  horses  they  had  brought  with  tliem 
from  Fmnce.  One  of  their  kings  (Dr.  Pauli  suggests 
Biorn)  was  desperately  wounded,  and  his  condition 
impeded  their  flight.  They  made  good  their  retreat 
to  the  Thames,  however ;  but,  either  from  panic  or 
want  of  knowledge,  struck  it  at  a  place  where  there 
was  no  ford,  and,  besides  the  great  slaughter  at  Farn- 
ham,  numbers  of  them  were  lost  in  crossing  the  river. 
The  first  rally  they  made  was  in  an  island,  at  the 
junction  of  the  Thames  and  Colne,  called  Thorney 
Island.  Here  Hasting  halted,  and  his  ships  prob- 
ably brought  him  supplies,  and  the  broken  bands  of 
his  army  joined  him.  But  Alfred  was  on  his  track, 
and  in  a  short  time  the  island  was  completely  in- 
vested by  Saxon  troops.  It  had  thus  become  only 
a  question  of  days.  If  the  blockade  could  have  been 
maintained.  Hasting  and  the  army  must  have  been 
soon  at  Alfred's  mercy.  Unhappily  the  besieged, 
by  the  aid  of  their  ships,  were  better  supplied  tlian 
the  besiegers  ;  and,  moreover,  the  time  of  service  of 
the  army  which  fought  at  Farnham  had  expired, 
and  the  reliefs  had  to  be  brought  up  at  this  critical 
moment.  Alfred  was  himself  engaged  in  bringing 
up  the  relieving  force,  when  news  reached  him  which 
induced  him  at  once  to  change  the  whole  of  liis 
plans,  and  to  abandon  for  the  time  the  hope  of  crush- 
ing his  foe  once  for  all  in  Thorney  Island. 

Although  Hasting  had  suffered  so  severely  in  his 
march  and  flight,  the  sagacity  which  prompted  the 
movement  was  at  once  justified.     Scarcely  had  the 


THE   THIKD    WAVE.  249 

beaten  army  appeared  to  the  iiortli  of  the  Thames 
when  the  Danes  of  the  east  coast,  from  Essex  to 
Northumberland,  unable  any  longer  to  resist  the 
contagion  of  battle,  broke  into  open  hostility,  and 
rushed  to  the  aid  of  their  robber  brethren.  They 
hastily  gathered  a  large  fleet,  which  sailed  at  once 
for  the  southern  coasts  of  "Wessex,  for  the  purpose 
of  creating  a  divei"sion,  and  raising  the  blockade  of 
Hasting  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colne.  A  hundred  of 
these  ships  pushed  up  the  Exe,  while  forty  more 
made  their  way  round  (the  Saxon  Chronicle  says 
"  by  the  north  ")  into  the  Bristol  Channel.  Each 
fleet  carried  an  armed  force  besides  the  crews ;  and 
Exeter  in  the  south,  and  some  fortress  on  the  north 
coast  of  Devonshire,  were  formally  invested.  This 
was  the  news  which  reached  Alfred  on  his  march 
towards  Essex,  and  it  had  all  the  effect  which  Hast- 
ing had  looked  for.  Alfred  at  once  resolved  to 
march  westward  himself.  The  Southern  Welsh 
who  dwelt  in  Cornwall  might  follow  the  example 
of  the  East  Anglians  and  Northumbrians,  and  join 
the  invaders,  and  the  whole  realm  be  in  a  blaze 
again,  as  it  was  in  879.  In  any  case  he  could  not 
leave  Somerset  and  Wilts,  probably  the  richest  and 
most  populous  parts  of  the  whole  of  Wessex,  and 
those  in  which  his  own  property  was  chiefly  situate, 
open  to  attack  from  the  west. 

The  blockade  of  Thorney  Island  was  therefore 
abandoned  at  once,  and  Hasting,  with  the  wrecks 
of  tlie  two  armies  which  had  garrisoned  the  camps 
of  Appledore  and  Milton,  escaped  to  Bemfleet. 
Here  he  found  his  ships  lying,  and  his  wife  and 
sons,  and  the  heavy  baggage  of  his  army,  already 
11  • 


250  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

occupying  the  old  fortifications  whicli  had  been 
tlirown  up  there  by  some  Danisli  leader,  if  not  by 
himself,  nine  years  before.  His  ranks  were  soon 
recruited,  by  bauds  of  Danes  from  the  outlying  parts 
of  the  kingdom.  He  lost  no  time  in  his  trenches, 
but  started  at  once  on  a  plundering  expedition  into 
Mercia. 

Before  starting  by  forced  marches  for  the  west, 
Alfred  had  divided  his  forces,  and  sent  a  strong 
body,  under  the  command  probably  of  his  son 
Edward,  who  had  greatly  distinguished  himself  in 
Farnham  fight,  to  reinforce  Ethelred,  who  was  liold- 
ing  London  with  the  ]\Iercian  troops.  That  able 
and  energetic  leader  immediately  planned  an  attack 
on  the  camp  at  Bemtleet,  in  accordance  Avith  the 
wishes  of  the  citizens  of  London,  who  could  not 
brook  the  constant  menace  of  such  a  hornets'  nest 
in  their  immediate  neighborhood.  So  Ethelred 
marched  suddenly  iipon  Bemfleet  camp,  and,  for  the 
first  time  in  these  wai-s,  the  Danes  were  thoroughly 
beaten  behind  their  own  fortifications,  and  in  a 
position  of  their  own  choosing.  The  camp  was 
stormed,  and  all  the  booty  found  there  taken,  and 
amongst  the  prisoners  were  the  wife  and  two  sons 
of  Hasting.  There  is  a  passage  in  the  Saxon  Chron- 
icle, and  in  Florence  of  Worcester,  to  the  effect 
that  these  boys  had  shortly  before  been  sent  as  hos- 
tages to  Alfred,  mIio  had  caused  tliem  to  be  baptized, 
he  and  Ethelred  acting  as  their  sponsors,  after  which 
they  had  been  sent  back  to  their  father.  And  now 
again  Alfred  restored  them  and  tlieir  mother  to  his 
faithless  enemy,  but  the  spoil  was  shared  amongst 
the   citizens   of    London   and   Ethelred's  garrison. 


THE  THIRD   WAVE.  251 

The  Danish  fleet  was  also  captured  at  Bemfleet,  and 
all  tlie  serviceable  vessels  were  taken  to  London  or 
Rochester,  while  the  remnant  were  broken  up  or 
burnt.  Hasting's  means  of  retreat  were  thus  de- 
stroyed, but  the  disaster  only  seem.j  to  have  braced 
the  nerves  of  the  old  pimte  for  greater  eflbrts.  He 
returned  to  the  neighborhood  of  Bemfleet,  collected 
the  remnants  of  tlie  army,  received  large  reinforce- 
ments again  from  East  Anglia,  and  intrenched 
another  camp  at  Shobury,  some  ten  miles  east  of 
his  former  position.  From  thence  he  marched  out 
at  the  head  of  another  strong  force,  along  the  north- 
ern bank  of  the  Thames,  and  then  up  the  Severn 
valley,  thus  carrying  fire  and  sword  into  the  heart 
of  Ethelred's  own  country.  His  intention  may  have 
been  to  relieve  the  Danish  forces  in  Devonshire,  and 
to  cut  Alfred  off  from  his  supplies  and  base.  If  so, 
he  was  quickly  and  completely  foiled.  Ethelred 
hastened  down  to  the  threatened  district,  and  sent 
summonses  to  all  the  neighboring  king's  aldermen 
and  thanes.  The  vigor  and  alacrity  of  the  response 
are  very  marked.  "Then  Ethelred,"  the  Saxon 
Chronicle  says,  "  and  Ethelhelm  the  alderman  (of 
AVilts),  and  Ethelnoth  the  alderman  (of  Somerset), 
and  the  king's  thanes  who  were  then  at  home  in  the 
fortified  places,  gathered  forces  from  every  town 
east  of  the  Parret,  and  as  well  west  as  east  of  Sel- 
wood,  and  also  north  of  the  Thames,  and  west  of 
the  Severn,  and  also  some  part  of  the  North  Welsh 
people."  Hasting  was  now  in  the  district  where 
Guthrum  had  attempted  a  settlement,  and  which 
had  been  the  scene  of  the  campaign  of  Ethandune. 
The  country  knew  well  what  to  expect  from  the 


2o2  LIFE   OF   ALFIIED    THE   GREAT. 

tender  mercies  of  the  Dane,  and  rose  as  one  man, 
without  a  thought  of  the  established  courses,  or 
whose  turn  it  miglit  be  for  the  regular  three  months' 
service.  Hasting  met  the  rising  by  turning  north- 
wards, abandoning  all  hope  of  penetrating  Wessex. 
He  might  look  for  more  encouragement,  at  least  for 
less  entliusiasm  of  resistance,  on  the  Xorth  Welsh 
border:  so  he  made  no  halt  till  lie  reached  Butting- 
ton  in  Montgomeryshire,  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn, 
where  he  intrenched  himself  and  waited  for  Ethel- 
red.  Buttington  is  a  border  parish  ;  Offa's  dyke, 
which  runs  through  it,  is  still  the  boundary  between 
Shropshire  and  Montgomeryshire.  There  are  several 
earthworks  still  to  be  seen  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  some  thirty  years  ago  a  vast  deposit  of  human 
bones  was  discovered  in  digging  the  foundations  of 
the  schools  there,  near  the  parish  church. 

Etlielred  on  his  arrival  divided  his  forces,  so  that 
he  might  watch  both  banks  of  the  Severn,  and  beset 
Hasting's  camp  very  straitly,  so  that  no  succors  or 
supplies  could  reach  the  besieged.  "  AVhen  tliey 
had  now  sat  there  many  weeks  on  both  sides  the 
river,"  the  Chronicle  tells  us,  "  then  were  the  enemy 
distressed  for  want  of  food,  and  having  eaten  a  great 
part  of  their  lioi*ses,  being  tlien  starved  with  hunger, 
they  went  out  against  the  men  who  were  encamped 
on  the  east  bank  of  the  river,  and  fought  against 
them.  And  the  Christians  had  the  victoiy.  And 
Ordeh,  a  king's  thane,  and  many  other  king's  thanes 
were  slain,  and  of  the  Danish  men  there  was  very 
great  slaughter  made.  And  that  part  which  got 
away  thence  was  saved  by  flight." 

Hasting  saved  himself  by  crossing  the  Mercian 


THE   THIRD    WAVE.  253 

border  over  "NVatling  Street,  fiilliug  back  on  a  part 
of  East  Anglia  far  removed  from  Alfred's  influence, 
and  which  had  stubbornly  resisted  all  but  the  sem- 
blance of  Christianity.  Either  the  encouragement 
which  he  found  here,  in  the  shape  of  recruits  and 
sympathy,  tempted  him  to  renew  the  struggle  in 
the  north  of  Mercia,  or  he  may  have  thought  that 
his  best  chance  of  succoring  his  allies  in  Devon- 
shire lay  in  piercing  to  the  west  coast  at  some  point 
where  his  great  fleet,  already  in  those  seas,  could 
fetch  him  off",  and  land  him  on  the  shores  of  the 
Bristol  Cliannel.  At  any  rate,  after  removing  the 
Danish  women  and  children,  and  all  their  pos- 
sessions, and  such  ships  as  were  left  them,  from 
Shobury  to  the  island  of  ^lersea,  —  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Black  water,  a  few  miles  south  of  Colchester,  a 
safer  spot,  and  twenty  miles  farther  from  London,  — 
and  committing  the  protection  of  the  settlement  to 
the  East  Anglians  of  those  parts,  now  his  open 
allies.  Hasting  went  back  again  with  a  fresh  army, 
"at  one  stretch,  day  and  night"  says  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  and  appeared  suddenly  before  Chester. 
The  royal  town  was  not  surprised,  and  was  held  by 
a  strong  garrison  ;  so  Hasting  swept  the  country  of 
cattle,  killed  the  few  people  he  found  outside  the 
walls,  ate  up  or  destroyed  all  the  crops,  which  were 
still  standing  in  the  late  autumn,  and"  then,  after 
two  days,  retired  into  the  peninsula  of  Wirral,  and 
there  went  into  winter  quarters.  Alfred  meanwhile 
had  compelled  the  Danes  to  raise  the  sieges  of 
Exeter  and  the  fortress  in  Nortli  Devon,  and  had 
driven  them  to  their  ships;  but  as  the  fleet  still 
hung   about  the  coasts  of  Devonshire  and  South 


254  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE  GREAT. 

"Wales  (Cormvall),  he  did  not  think  it  safe  to  leave 
the  far  west  for  the  present,  being  no  doubt  well 
satisfied  with  the  reports  which  reached  him  of  the 
vigorous  way  in  which  Hasting  had  been  met  when 
he  threatened  Centml  Wessex.  So  the  King  win- 
tered in  Devonshire. 

The  first  eventful  year  of  the  war  was  now  ended, 
and  on  every  side  the  enormous  increase  of  power 
in  the  nation  consequent  on  -Alfred's  rule  had 
proved  itself.  The  pagan  army  had  not  only  been 
outfought,  as  in  past  years  at  Ashdown  and  Ethan- 
dune,  but  outmarched  and  outmana-uvred  by  Alfred 
and  Ethelred,  and  the  Saxon  and  Mercian  levies. 
They  had  not  taken  a  single  place  of  any  impor- 
tance, while  one  of  their  intrenched  camps  had  been 
stormed,  and  four  others  abandoned.  The  issue 
coidd  not  be  doubtful,  unless  some  great  reinforce- 
ments came  to  Hasting  from  over  tlie  sea  ;  but  the 
old  pirate  was  still  at  the  head  of  a  formidable 
army,  and  had  opened  up  a  good  recruiting  ground 
on  the  east  coasts.  There  was  no  room  for  careless- 
ness or  foolhardiness  in  tlie  coming  spring. 

The  campaign  of  895  was  probably  opened  by 
Ethelred,  or  some  Mercian  earl,  who  made  a  suc- 
cessful dash  at  Hasting  in  the  Wirral  peninsula, 
and  carried  off  all  the  store  of  cattle  and  provision 
Avhich  he  had  accumulated,  for  the  Saxon  Chronicle 
notices  this  loss  as  the  reason  why  he  broke  up  his 
camp  there.  So  the  Danes  took  the  field,  and, 
avoiding  Chester  and  ^lercia  for  the  time,  marched 
into  Xorth  Wales.  Here,  before  Ethelred  could 
come  at  them,  they  collected  a  large  booty  in  the 
valleys,  and  then  retreated  into  Northumbria,  "  fear- 


THE   THIRD   AVAVE.  255 

ing,"  says  Florence,  "  to  return  tlirongh  Mercia." 
Dr.  Pauli  gathers,  from  an  obscure  passage  in  Ethel- 
ward's  Chronicle,  that  on  his  march  southwards 
Hasting  was  intercepted  by  Ethelnoth  at  Stamford, 
and  that  a  battle  was  fought  there.  In  any  case, 
in  the  course  of  the  summer  or  autumn,  the  main 
body  of  the  Danes  arrived  safely  in  the  isle  of 
Mersea,  and  received  tlieir  women  and  children 
from  the  safe-keeping  of  their  East  Anglian  allies. 

Here  they  were  joined  in  the  autumn  by  the  fleet 
and  the  remains  of  the  army  which  had  been  in 
Devonshire.  Foiled  at  all  points  by  Alfred  himself, 
and  driven  to  their  ships,  they  had  sailed  out  of  the 
Exe,  and  on  their  voyage  eastwards  had  made  a 
sudden  descent  on  the  Sussex  coast  near  Chicliester. 
But  the  garrison  and  citizens  turned  out  and  foufjht 
them,  "  slaying  many  hundreds,  and  taking  some  of 
their  ships."  But  Hasting  was  not  yet  beaten,  and, 
before  Alfred  had  time  to  organize  an  attack  on 
Mersea,  put  all  on  board  his  fleet  and  sailed  boldly 
up  the  Thames  and  the  Lea,  and  once  more  fortified 
liimself  in  a  strong  camp  on  the  latter  river,  only 
twenty  miles  from  London.  And  so  the  second 
year  of  the  war  ended. 

896  opened  with  a  reverse  to  the  Saxon  arms. 
Encouraged  by  the  success  of  the  attack  on  the 
Bemfleet  camp  two  yeai-s  before,  and  perhaps  by 
the  exploit  of  the  citizens  of  Chichester  in  the 
last  autumn,  the  men  of  London  and  their  garrison 
marched  out  to  attack  Hasting  in  his  camp  on  the 
Lea,  without  waiting  the  arrival  of  Alfred  or  Ethei- 
red.  They  were  beaten  by  the  Danes,  and  retreated 
on  London,  with  the  loss   of   four  king's  thanes. 


25(3  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

The  King  now  came  up,  and  established  himself  be- 
tween Hasting's  camp  and  the  city,  to  protect  the 
people  while  they  reaped  their  crops.  While  en- 
camped for  this  purpose,  Alfred,  riding  one  day 
along  the  river,  discovered  a  place  where  the  stream 
might  be  easily  diverted  or  obstructed,  so  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  the  Danes  to  pass  down  it 
with  their  fleet.  He  set  to  the  work  at  once,  and  at 
the  same  time  began  to  build  two  forts,  one  on  each 
side  of  the  Lea,  at  the  point  he  had  selected  for  di- 
verting the  stream.  Hasting  did  not  wait  for  the 
catastrophe.  Confiding  the  women  and  children 
again  to  the  care  of  the  East  Anglians,  and  aban- 
doning his  camp  and  fleet,  he  marched  away  again 
northwest,  and  established  himself  for  the  winter 
near  Bridgnorth  (Cwatbridge)  in  Shropshire,  distan- 
cing the  force  which  Alfred  sent  in  pursuit.  The 
Londoners  took  possession  of  the  camp  and  fleet  in 
great  triumph.  Those  ships  which  they  could  not 
bring  away  were  burnt,  and  all  which  were  "  stal- 
worth "  they  brought  down  to  London.  And  so 
ended  the  third  and  last  year  of  Alfred's  last  war. 

In  the  spring  of  897  Hasting  broke  up  his  last 
camp  on  Englisli  soil.  His  army  was  now  composed 
of  Northumbrian  and  East  Anglian  Danes,  as  well  as 
of  his  followers  who  had  embarked  from  Boulogne 
three  years  before.  The  former  marched  back  to 
their  own  homes,  while  Hasting,  with  the  remains 
of  his  own  followers,  felt  his  way  back  to  some 
place  on  the  east  coast.  Here  the  women  and  chil- 
dren rejoined  them,  and  the  baffled  pirate  leader, 
getting  together  ships  enough  to  carry  him  and  his 
fortunes,  "  went  southward  over  sea  to  the  Seine." 


THE  THIRD   WAVE.  257 

"  Thanks  be  to  God ! "  the  Chronicle  sums  up, 
"  the  army  had  not  utterly  broken  down  the  English 
nation :  but  during  those  three  years  it  was  much 
more  broken  down  by  the  mortality  which  raged 
amongst  cattle  and  amongst  men ;  and  most  of  all 
by  this,  that  many  of  the  most  eminent  of  the 
King's  servants  in  the  land  died  during  the  three 
years,  some  of  whom  were  Swithulf,  Bishop  of 
liocliester,  and  Ceolmund,  alderman  of  Kent,  and 
Beorthidf,  alderman  of  Hants,  and  Ealherd,  Bishop 
of  Dorchester,  and  Eadulf,  the  king's  thane  in  Sussex, 
and  Beornwulf,  the  wicreeve  of  Winchester,  and 
Ecgulf,  the  king's  horse-thane,  and  many  also  be- 
sides these,  though  I  have  named  the  most  famous." 
A  goodly  list  of  men  who  could  ill  be  spared ;  most 
of  them,  too,  we  may  note,  oflScers  in  the  districts 
which  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  invasion. 

The  embers  of  the  fire  which  Hasting  had  kindled 
continued  to  smoulder  after  he  had  left  the  island. 
His  Northumbrian  and  East  Anglian  allies  could 
not  at  once  give  up  the  excitement  of  the  rover's 
life,  which  was  bred  in  their  blood,  and  of  wliich 
tliey  had  now  again  tasted  after  so  many  years  of 
abstinence.  They  were  chiefly  dwellers  by  the  sea, 
and  now,  abandoning  all  attempts  at  inland  warfare, 
fitted  out  small  squadrons  of  their  swift  vessels, 
called  "  oescs,"  and  in  these  cruised  off  the  southern 
coasts  of  Wessex,  inflicting  much  local  damage,  and 
greatly  exasperating  Alfred  and  his  people.  In  the 
course  of  the  autumn  Alfred's  new  galleys  swept 
the  whole  of  these  marauders  off  the  sea,  capturing 
twenty  of  their  "  cescs "  at  one  time  or  another. 
But  the  only  detailed  account  we  have  of  an  action 

Q 


258  T.IFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

between  the  King's  ships  and  the  pirates  suggests 
rather  that  the  Danes  still  retained  their  mastery  as 
sailors,  and  that  Alfred  and  his  new  ships,  with  their 
motley  crews,  only  prevailed  against  them  by  sheer 
weight  and  superior  numbers. 

The  story  is  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle  as  follows : 
"  Some  time  in  the  same  year  there  came  six  ships 
to  Wight,  and  there  did  much  harm,  as  well  as 
in  Devon  and  elsewhere  along  the  sea-coast.  Then 
the  King  commanded  nine  of  his  new  ships  to  go 
thither,  and  they  blockaded  the  passage  from  the 
port  to  the  outer  sea.  Then  went  the  pirates  with 
three  of  their  ships  out  against  them  ;  and  tliree  lay 
in  the  upper  part  of  the  port  dry,  and  the  crews 
were  gone  out  of  them  on  shore.  Then  the  King's 
ships  took  tM'o  of  the  three  sliij)s  at  the  outer  port, 
and  killed  the  crews,  and  the  other  ship  escaped. 
In  that  also  all  the  men  Avere  killed  except  five,  and 
it  escaped  because  the  King's  ships  got  aground. 
They  indeed  were  aground  very  disadvantageously, 
for  three  lay  on  that  side  where  the  Danish  ships 
were  aground,  and  all  the  rest  upon  the  other  side, 
so  that  no  one  of  them  could  get  to  the  others. 
But  when  the  water  had  ebbed  many  furlongs  from 
the  ships,  then  the  Danish  men  went  from  their 
three  ships  to  the  other  three  which  were  'left  by 
the  tide  on  their  side,  and  fought  against  them 
there."  "  Then  might  you  have  seen,"  says  the 
Chronicle  of  Huntingdon,  "  the  English  people  of 
the  six  ships  looking  at  the  battle,  and  unable  to 
bear  them  help,  beating  their  breasts  with  their 
hands,  and  tearing  their  hair  with  their  nails,"  —  a 
grim  little  picture  of  the  doings  of  the  ancestors  of 


THE   TIIIIJD    WAVE.  259 

the  Blakes  and  Nelsons.  "  There  were  slain  Lucu- 
mon,  the  king's  reeve,  and  "Wulf  heard  the  Frisian, 
and  Abba)  the  Frisian,  and  Ethelhere  the  Frisian, 
and  Ethelferth  the  king's  neat-herd ;  and  of  all  tlie 
men,  Frisians  and  English,  72,  and  of  the  Danish 
men,  120.  Then,  however,  the  flood-tide  came  to 
the  Danisli  ships  before  the  English  could  get  theirs 
off :  they  therefore  rowed  away.  Nevertheless,  they 
were  so  damaged  that  they  could  not  row  round 
Sussex ;  and  there  the  sea  cast  two  of  them  on 
shore,  and  the  crews  were  led  to  the  King  at  Win- 
chester ;  and  he  commanded  them  to  be  there 
lianged.  And  the  men  who  were  in  the  single  ship 
came  to  East  Anglia  sorely  wounded." 

It  appears  that  Alfred  also  hanged  all  that  fell 
into  his  hands  of  the  crews  of  the  remainder  of  the 
twenty  pirate  vessels.  Some  of  his  biographers  are 
inclined  to  gloss,  or  extenuate,  the  King's  severity 
in  these  last  dealings  with  the  pirates.  It  seems  to 
me  the  most  wise  and  merciful  course  he  could  have 
taken.  The  war  was  now  virtually  at  an  end,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  impress  upon  the  loose  seafaring 
population  of  Northumbria  and  East  Anglia  that 
they  could  only  continue  it  in  small  marauding 
excursions  on  their  own  account  at  the  peril  of  their 
necks.  That  the  King,  at  this  triumphant  crisis 
of  his  life,  as  well  as  on  evety  other  occasion,  was 
lenient  to  his  foes,  and  scrupulously  careful  to  act 
up  to  the  high  standard  he  had  set  himself,  is 
abundantly  clear  by  the  fact  that  he  exacted  no 
penalty  whatever  from  Northumbria,  and  from  East 
Anglia  only  annexed  a  comer  of  Essex.  It  would 
have   been    easv   for   liim   and    Ethelred   to   have 


260  LIFE    OF   ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 

marched  from  Watling  Street  to  the  Forth,  and  the 
Danish  under-kings  were  practically  at  his  mercy. 
But  they,  and  the  hulk  of  their  people,  had  taken 
no  active  part  with  Hasting,  and  the  King  would 
not  punish  them  for  want  of  power  to  control  the 
most  turbulent  of  their  people,  in  such  times,  and 
under  such  temptations.  So  there  was  no  reckoning 
for  the  past ;  only,  as  they  could  not  hinder  their 
nominal  subjects  from  turning  pirates,  the  King 
must  read  a  lesson  to  such  persons.  That  of  "Win- 
chester w^as  enough.  There  is  no  hint  of  any  further 
piracy  during  Alfred's  reign. 


THE  king's  home.  261 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

THE   king's  home. 

"  B!p.>sed  is  the  man  thnf  doth  meditate  pood  things  in  wisdom. 

"  He  Hhall  pitdi  liis  tent  nigh  unto  her,  and  shall  lodge  in  a  lodging 

where  good  things  are. 
"  He  shall  cet  his  children  under  her  shelter,  and  shall  lodge  under 

her  branches." 

WE  may  now  take  leave  of  the  King's  public 
life.  All  that  can  be  told  — at  least  all 
that  tlie  present  writer  has  to  tell  of  it  —  lies  be- 
hind us.  How  un.satisfactory  the  picture  is  at  the 
best ;  how  indistinctly  most  of  the  persons  stand 
out  from  behind  the  mists  of  a  thousand  years ; 
how  necessary  it  has  been  at  every  step  to  hesitate 
as  to  the  course  and  meaning  of  events  ;  how  many 
questions  of  grave  importance  remain  scarcely 
stated,  and  altogether  unsolved,  —  no  one  can  feel 
more  strongly  than  he  does.  At  the  same  time, 
unless  the  attempt  has  wholly  failed,  he  must  have 
in  some  sort  made  clear  for  his  readei-s  the  figure 
of  a  king  who,  having  by  his  own  energy,  and  by 
his  personal  cliaracter  and  genius,  won  for  himself 
a  position  such  as  no  man  of  the  English  race  ever 
had  before,  or  has  ever  had  since,  never  used,  or 
thourjht  of  usiiiGr,  his  stren<itli  and  wisdom  on  his 
own  behalf,  or  for  his  own  selfish  purposes,  —  a 
king,  in  sliort,  who  yielded  himself  to  do  the  work 
to  which  God  had  called  him,  simply  and  tJiorough- 


262  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

ly,  never  losing  the  consciousness  that  he  was  him- 
self under  command. 

We  have  still,  however,  to  gather  up  such  frag- 
ments as  are  left  of  the  home-life  of  Alfred,  and 
to  glance  at  the  work  in  which,  after  all,  he  proh- 
ably  most  delighted,  —  his  writings  and  transla- 
tions. 

Alfred,  as  w^e  know,  had  no  settled  home.  We 
find  him  now  in  one  county,  now  in  another,  at  one 
of  the  royal  residences,  which  were  indeed  so  numer- 
ous that  we  can  only  suppose  the  accommodation  at 
many  of  them  to  have  been  of  the  roughest  and 
simplest  description.  The  ordinary  houses  of  the 
Saxon  nobles  consisted  of  a  large  central  hall,  with 
chapel  and  rooms  for  the  family  attached,  and  out- 
houses for  the  servants  and  followers  grouped  round 
them.  The  whole  of  these  buildings  were  of  wood 
up  to  Alfred's  time,  and  there  were  no  deep  moats 
or  military  defences  of  any  kind.  The  king's  resi- 
dences differed  only  in  size  from  those  of  the  no- 
bility ;  but  Alfred  must  have  needed  much  more 
room  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  as  his  court  be- 
came very  large.  Foreigners  of  all  nations  flocked 
to  it,  for  whom  special  and  liberal  provision  was 
made  in  the  distribution  of  his  income  ;  and,  be- 
sides his  officers  of  state,  he  had  always  in  attend- 
ance a  strong  body  of  troops,  and  a  number  of 
skilled  artisans  and  mechanics. 

The  importance  Avliich  he  attached  to  the  im- 
provement of  his  own  residences,  and  of  the  archi- 
tecture of  his  clmrclies  and  other  public  buildings, 
is  shown  by  the  large  proportion  of  his  income 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  devoted  to  building 


THE  king's  home.  263 

purposes.  But  notwithstanding  all  his  efforts,  and 
the  magnificence  of  many  of  his  new  buildings, 
compared  with  any  then  known  in  England,  the 
quarters  in  which  the  royal  household  lived  were 
oi'ten  rough  places  enough,  as  we  know  incidentally 
from  the  history  of  his  most  celebrated  invention, — 
tlie  horn-lantern.  At  the  time  that  he  made  the 
division  of  his  yearly  income  in  the  manner  we 
have  lieard,  Alfred  also  resolved  to  offer  to  God  no 
less  of  the  service  of  his  mind  and  body  than  of 
his  worldly  wealth.  "  lie  accordingly  niade  a  vow 
to  consecrate  half  of  his  time  to  God's  service  ;  and 
tliis  vow,  so  far  as  his  infirmity  would  allow,  he  per- 
formed with  all  liis  miglit,  by  night  and  day.  But 
inasmuch  as  he  could  not  equally  distinguish  the 
length  of  the  hours  by  night,  on  account  of  the 
darkness,  and  also  oftentimes  of  the  day,  on  ac- 
count of  the  storms  and  clouds,  he  began  to  con- 
sider by  what  means,  without  any  uncertainty,  re- 
lying on  the  mercy  of  God,  he  might  discharge  the 
tenor  of  his  vow  till  his  death.  After  much  thought 
on  these  tilings,  he  at  length  hit  on  a  shrewd  inven- 
tion. He  commanded  his  chaplains  to  supply  wax 
of  sufficient  quantity  and  quality,  and  had  it  weighed 
in  such  a  manner  tliat  when  there  was  so  much  of  it 
in  the  scales  as  would  equal  the  weight  of  seventy- 
two  pence,  he  caused  the  chaplains  to  make  six 
candles  thereof,  of  equal  length  ;  so  that  each  candle 
might  have  twelve  divisions  marked  across  it.  By 
this  plan,  therefore,  those  six  candles  burned  for 
twenty-four  hours  —  a  night  and  day  —  without 
fail,  before  the  sacred  relics  of  many  of  God's  elect, 
which  always  accompanied  him  wherever  he  weut. 


264  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

But  sometimes  they  would  not  continue  burning  a 
whole  day  and  night,  till  the  same  hour  that  they 
were  lighted  on  the  previous  evening,  from  tlie  vio- 
lence of  the  wind,  whicli  blew  without  intermission 
through  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  churches,  the 
fissures  at  the  divisions  in  the  plankings  of  the  walls, 
or  the  thin  canvas  of  the  tents.  When,  therefore, 
the  candles  burned  out  and  finished  their  course  be- 
fore the  jjroper  time,  the  King  considered  by  what 
means  he  could  shut  out  the  wind  ;  and  so,  by  a 
useful  and  cunning  invention,  he  had  a  lantern 
beautifully  constructed  in  wood  and  white  ox-horn, 
which,  when  skilfully  planed  till  it  is  thin,  is  no 
less  transparent  than  a  vessel  of  glass.  This  lan- 
tern, therefore,  was  wonderfully  made  of  wood  and 
horn,  as  we  before  said  ;  and  by  night  a  candle  was 
put  into  it,  which  shone  as  brightly  without  as  with- 
in, and  was  not  extinguished  by  the  wind  ;  for  the 
opening  of  the  lantern  was  also  closed  up,  accord- 
ing to  the  King's  command,  by  a  door  of  horn.  By 
this  contrivance  these  six  candles,  lighted  in  succes- 
sion, lasted  twenty-four  hours,  —  neither  more  nor 
less ;  and  when  these  were  extinguished,  others 
were  lighted." 

His  taste  and  genius  for  science,  and  for  mechanics, 
are  mentioned  in  several  chroniclers,  but  there  is  no 
description  left  of  any  other  invention  of  his.  Asser, 
in  a  passage  which  sums  up  his  every-day  mode  of 
life,  says :  "  During  the  frequent  wars  and  other 
trammels  of  this  present  life,  the  invasions  of  the 
Pagans,  and  his  own  daily  infirmities  of  body,  he 
continued  to  carry  on  the  government,  and  to  exer- 
cise hunting  in  all  its  branches  ;  to  teach  his  work- 


THE  king's  home.  265 

ers  in  gold  and  artificers  of  all  kinds,  his  falconers, 
hawkers,  and  dog-keepers  ;  to  build  houses  majestic 
and  good  beyond  all  the  precedents  of  his  ancestors 
by  his  new  mechanical  inventions  ;  to  recite  the 
Saxon  books,  and  especially  to  learn  by  heart  the 
Saxon  poems,  and  to  make  others  leani  them  ;  and 
he  alone  never  desisted  from  studying  to  the  best 
of  his  ability.  He  attended  the  mass,  and  other 
daily  services  of  religion  ;  he  was  frequent  in  psalm- 
singing  and  prayer  at  the  houi-s  both  of  day  and 
night.  He  also  went  to  the  churches  in  the  night- 
time to  pray  secretly,  and  unknown  to  his  courtiers ; 
he  bestowed  alms  and  largesses  on  natives  and 
foreigners  of  all  countries  ;  he  was  affable  and 
pleasant  to  all,  and  curiously  eager  to  investigate 
things  unkno^\^l." 

That  part  of  the  above  statement  which  speaks  of 
the  King's  teaching  his  workers  in  gold  has  received 
curious  illustration  from  the  famous  jewel  found  at 
Newton  Park,  near  Athelney,  in  1693,  and  which 
is  now  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum  at  Oxford.  The 
jewel  consists  of  a  figure  holding  a  flower  in  each 
hand,  and  composed  of  blue,  green,  red,  and  white 
enamel,  let  into  golden  cells.  The  settings  and  back 
of  the  jewel  are  of  pure  gold,  the  latter  being  chased 
in  a  graceful  pattern.  It  is  about  half  an  inch 
thick,  and  round  the  outside  runs  the  scroll,  "Alfred 
had  me  worked  "  —  "  Alfred  mec  heht  gewyrcan," 
—  stamped  on  the  gold  edge. 

The  above  description,  from  the  pen  of  the  inti- 
mate friend  who  was  at  his  side  during  all  the  later 
years  of  peace,  helps  us  to  picture  to  ourselves  the 
life  which  the  King  lived  in  his  great  court,  —  haK 

12 


266  LIFK    OF    ALFJ'.FL)    THE    GKEAT. 

camp,  half  city,  —  which  moved  about  all  the  south- 
ern counties,  stimulating  industry,  and  overawing 
outlaws  and  lawless  men  on  tlie  one  hand,  and  ex- 
ercising on  the  other  a  close  and  severe  control  over 
the  acts  of  aldermen  and  sheriffs,  and  the  decisions 
of  judges.  In  the  midst  of  this  home  of  work,  and 
with  the  example  of  the  chief  and  most  diligent 
worker  always  before  their  eyes,  his  family  grew  up 
round  him. 

In  his  private  life  the  King  seems  to  have  been  as 
happy  as  he  deserved  to  be.  Of  Queen  Ethelswitha 
we  know  nothing,  except  that  she  was  the  faithful 
consort  of  her  husband,  and  bore  him  many  chil- 
dren. The  early  training  of  these  must  liave  been 
her  chief  work,  and  how  admirably  it  was  performed 
may  be  inferred  from  the  results.  Every  child  of 
Alfred  turned  out  well.  The  girls  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily were  trained  in  all  kinds  of  womanly  work  ;  the 
four  daughters  of  Edward  the  Elder,  who  must  have 
been  brought  up  in  Ethelswitha's  household,  having 
been  specially  distinguished  for  their  great  assidu- 
ity and  skill  in  spinning,  weaving,  and  needlework. 
And  the  processes  used  in  these  arts  w^ere  by  no 
means  simple.  Bishop  Adhelm  speaks,  even  in  his 
time,  of  webs  formed  "  with  threads  of  purple  and 
various  other  colors  woven  in  with  the  shuttle, 
thrown  from  one  side  to  the  other,  thereby  forming 
a  variety  of  different  colors  and  figures,  each  in  its 
own  proper  compartment  knit  together  with  ex- 
quisite art." 

The  higher  education,  of  girls  as  well  as  boys, 
went  on  in  the  schools  attached  to  the  court  under 
Alfred's   own   eye.      Probably  his   own   daughters 


THE  king's  home.  267 

were  at  least  as  well  taught  as  Queen  Edgitlia  in 
the  next  century,  who  was  often  seen  by  Ingulplms 
in  his  boyhood,  when  his  father  was  in  tlie  palace, 
as  he  came  from  scliool.  "  When  T  have  met  her  she 
would  examine  me  in  my  learning,  and  from  gram- 
mar would  proceed  to  logic,  which  she  also  under- 
stood, concluding  with  me  in  most  subtle  argument ; 
then  causing  one  of  her  attendant  maids  to  present 
me  with  a  piece  of  money,  I  was  dismissed  to  the 
larder,  where  I  was  sure  to  get  something  to  eat." 
Ethelswitha  survived  her  husband,  and  died  at  the 
court  of  her  son  in  905. 

The  eldest  child,  Ethelfleda,  born  in  the  first  year 
of  her  father's  reign,  when  the  Danes  were  in  Read- 
ing camp,  was  married  very  early  to  the  gallant 
Ethelred,  the  Alderman  of  Mercia,  Alfred's  "  prin- 
ceps  militise,"  as  he  is  sometimes  called.  She  shared 
the  government  with  her  husband,  as  Lady  of  Mer- 
cia, and  after  liis  death  ruled  gallantly  in  the  cen- 
tre of  England,  consolidating  and  strengthening  the 
Mercian  frontiers,  against  the  Welsh  on  one  side, 
and  the  East  Anglians  on  the  other. 

Their  second  daughter  was  Etlielgeda,  who  became 
abbess  of  the  great  monastery  at  Shaftesbury,  which 
the  King  built  soon  after  the  peace  of  Wedmore. 
Her  residence  there  may  probably  account  for  the 
special  attachment  which  Alfred  showed  to  the 
town,  which  he  rebuilt  as  early  as  A.  D.  880,  if  we 
may  accept  the  evidence  of  William  of  ^lalmesbury. 
He  mentions  in  his  chronicle  tliat  he  had  seen  a 
stone  which  was  dug  out  of  the  old  walls  in  his 
time,  and  which  bore  the  inscription,  "  A.  D.  880, 
Alfredus  Rex  fecit  banc  Urbem,  regni  sui  8°." 


268  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

The  third  daughter,  Elfrida,  or  Eifrith,  became 
the  wife  of  Baldwin  of  Elanders,  tlie  eldest  son  of 
Judith,  Alfred's  old  playfellow,  wlio  had  scandalized 
Christian  England  in  the  time  of  his  boyhood  by 
her  successive  marriages  with  his  father  and  brother. 
How  or  when  the  reconciliation  between  them  took 
place  we  do  not  know. 

The  boys  were  Edward,  afterwards  King  Edward 
the  Elder,  and  Ethehvard.  Ethelward,  the  younger 
son,  showed  a  turn  for  study,  and,  "  by  the  divine 
counsels  and  prudence  of  the  King,  was  consigned 
to  the  schools  of  learning,  where,  with  the  children 
of  almost  all  the  nobility  of  the  country,  and  many 
also  who  were  not  noble,  he  prospered  under  the 
diligent  care  of  his  teachers."  "While  Ethelward 
then  was  sent  to  Oxford  (or  whatever  was  the  lead- 
ing school  of  England),  Edward  seems  never  to  have 
got  beyond  the  school  which  was  attached  to  his 
father's  court.  Asser  states  that  he  and  Eifrith 
were  bred  up  in  the  King's  court,  "  and  continue 
there  to  this  day  "  (probably  about  A.  D.  887),  add- 
ing in  words  which  clearly  apply  to  both  the  boys, 
though  Ethelward's  name  is  not  mentioned.  He  con- 
tinues :  "  They  had  the  love  of  all  about  them,  and 
showed  affability  and  gentleness  to  all,  both  natives 
and  foreigners,  and  were  in  complete  subjection  to 
their  father.  Xor  amongst  their  other  studies  which 
pertain  to  this  life,  and  are  fit  for  noble  youths,  are 
they  suffered  to  pass  their  time  idly  and  unprofitably 
without  learning  the  liberal  arts  ;  for  they  have  care- 
fully learned  the  Psalms  and  Saxon  books,  especially 
the  Saxon  poems,  and  are  continually  in  the  habit 
of  raakincr  use  of  books." 


THE    KINGS    HOME.  269 

But  Edward  inherited  all  his  lather's  vigor  and 
courage,  as  well  as  his  kindly  courtesy,  and  was  ad- 
dicted to,  and  no  doubt  encouraged  by  Alfred  in,  the 
practice  of  martial  sports  and  hunting.  There  is  a 
romantic  story  which  connects  his  first  marriage 
with  a  hunting  expedition.  Turning  aside  from  his 
sport  to  visit  an  old  woman  who  had  been  his  nurse, 
he  found  living  with  her  a  girl  of  great  beauty, 
named  Edgina.  She  was  the  daughter  of  a  shep- 
herd, according  to  "William  of  Malmesbury  and 
Brompton,  but  at  any  rate  was  ef  lowly  birth,  and 
had  dreamt  that  the  moon  shone  out  of  her  body  so 
brightly  that  it  illuminated  all  England.  She  had 
told  the  dream  to  the  old  nurse,  who  had  adopted 
her,  and  now  the  Etheling  came  to  make  the  dream 
true.  Tliere  has  been  much  discussion  whether  they 
were  married,  but  the  better  opinion  seems  to  be  that 
they  were.  In  any  case,  their  son  Athelstan  was  rec- 
ognized by  Alfred  as  his  grandson  when  quite  a 
child,  and  intrusted  to  Ethelred  and  Ethelfleda  to 
bring  up.  AVhen  old  enough  to  be  brought  to  court, 
his  guardians  presented  him  to  Alfred,  who  was  so 
pleased  with  the  boy's  look  and  manner  that  he 
"  blessed  liim  for  king  after  his  son  Edward,"  and 
gave  him  a  purple  robe,  a  belt  set  with  jewels,  and 
a  Saxon  sword  in  a  golden  sheath. 

Edgina  died  early,  and  Edward  had  a  large  family 
by  two  other  wives,  of  whom  three  daughters  mar- 
ried the  most  powerful  continental  princes  :  Ed- 
githa,  the  Emperor  Otho  I. ;  Edgiva,  Charles  the 
Simple ;  and  Ethilda,  Hugo  the  Great,  Duke  of 
Burgundy  and  Neustria,  the  rival  of  the  Cariovin- 
gian  line  of  Prankish  kings. 


27U  LIFE   OF   ALFllED   THE   GREAT. 

Eeaders  must  fill  up  for  themselves  the  picture 
of  the  English  life  round  the  great  King ;  and  a 
cheerful  and  healthy  life  it  must  have  been,  with  its 
regular  work  interspersed  with  tlie  well-kept  Saints' 
days  and  Sundays,  on  which  no  bondman  could  be 
made  to  work  without  thereby  gaining  a  right  to  his 
freedom.  The  discomfort  of  their  houses  was  little 
felt  by  a  hardy  race,  and,  while  their  useful  car- 
pentry was  of  the  rudest  kind,  their  ornamental 
furniture  comprised  articles  inlaid  Mith  the  precious 
metals,  and  candlesticks  and  goblets  and  min'ors  of 
wrought  silver,  and  hangings  of  all  bright  colors. 
The  descriptions  which  have  reached  us  of  the 
dresses  and  ways  of  the  people  go  far  to  prove  that 
England  was  merry  England  a  thousand  years  ago. 
Men  and  women  alike  delighted  in  bright  colors. 
The  men,  in  peace  time,  wore  a  tunic  of  wool  or 
linen,  with  sleeves  to  the  wrists,  and  girded  round 
the  waist,  and  those  who  could  afford  them,  bracelets 
and  rings.  The  women  wore  dresses  of  linen  or 
wool,  often  ornamented  with  embroidery :  and  silk 
hoods  with  long  pendants,  mantles,  girdles,  cuffs, 
and  ribands,  were  also  not  unknown  to  them.  Their 
ornatnents  were  head-bands,  necklaces,  bracelets,  and 
rings,  many  of  which  were  of  fine  workmansliip,  and 
enamelled  with  gems.  Their  hair  was  dressed  with 
curling-irons,  and  with  great  care  ;  long  curls  being 
the  mark  of  a  free  woman.  Even  the  clergy  were 
addicted  to  colored  garments  and  ornaments,  which 
drew  down  on  them,  and  on  the  people,  the  severe 
censures  of  stern  ecclesiastics  such  as  St.  Boniface, 
who  declared  tliat  the  vain  showiness  in  the  dress 
of  his  people  announced  the  coming  of  Antichrist. 


Tin:  Kixi;s  home.  2^l 

Gleemeu,  posture-masters,  and  jugglers  were  al- 
ways at  hand  to  sing  and  tumble  for  the  amusement 
of  rich  and  poor  during  meals  and  in  the  evenings ; 
and  hunting,  and  hawking,  and  sword  and  buckler 
play,  and  horse-racing,  filled  up  the  intervals  of 
more  serious  business.  In  short,  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  Court,  the  life  of  all  but  the 
King  and  his  bishops  and  immediate  attendants 
must  have  passed  in  a  round  of  strenuous  work  and 
rough  and  healthy  sport,  well  calculated  to  develop 
the  powers  of  his  vigorous,  if  somewhat  indolent 
people. 


272  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GKEAT. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

THE   KING   AS   ALTHOR. 

"  The  lips  of  the  righteous  feed  many:  but  fools  die  for  want 
of  wisdom." 

IT  is  impossible  to  accept  as  literally  true  Asser'a 
statement,  that  it  was  not  until  the  year  "887 
that  Alfred  began,  on  the  same  day,  to  read  and  in- 
terpret. That  he  could  write  as  well  as  read  when 
a  boy,  charters  bearing  'his  signature  as  early  as  862, 
in  the  form,  "  I,  Alfred,  brother  to  the  King,  have 
consented  and  subscribed,"  clearly  prove.  It  was 
probably,  however,  in  the  month  of  November,  887, 
that  he  began  that  series  of  books  for  his  people 
which  form,  after  all,  his  most  enduring  monument. 
But  for  Alfred's  works  the  Anglo-Saxon  spoken  in 
the  ninth  century  might  never  have  reached  us  at 
all.  When  he  was  a  boy  the  literature  of  his 
mother-tongue  consisted  of  a  few  poems,  such  as 
those  of  Csedmon  and  Adhelm,  sung  by  the  people, 
and  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  for  even  Bede 
had  written  his  great  work  in  Latin.  When  Alfred 
died  he  left  all  those  of  his  people  who  could 
read  versions  of  the  best  historical,  philosophical, 
and  religious  works  wliich  the  times  afforded  in 
their  own  mother-tongue.  Notwithstanding  the  evi- 
dence from  the  several  prefaces  to  the  works  them- 
selves, and  from  the  passages  interpolated  in  the 


THE   KING   AS   AUTHOR.  273 

text,  which  contain  direct  references  to  himself,  and 
could  scarcely  have  been  written  by  any  other  per- 
son, it  is  almost  beyond  belief  that  he  could  have 
translated,  paraphrased,  and  adapted  all  the  books 
which  are  generally  attributed  to  him.  The  press- 
ure of  public  business  of  all  kinds  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  of  his  life,  and  the  interruption  of  the  invasion 
of  Hasting,  which  must  have  jjut  a  stop  to  his  liter- 
ary >vork  altogether  for  three  years,  make  it  almost 
a  physical  impossibility ;  and  we  are  driven  to  the 
conclusion  that  Plegnnind,  Asser,  and  his  chaplains 
must  have  done  great  part  of  the  work  under  his 
immediate  direction  and  supervision.  The  wisdom 
and  breadth  of  his  views  will  be  seen  best  by  a 
short  notice  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  works 
which  he  left  to  his  people.  But  the  most  fitting 
introduction  to  these  will  be  the  account  given  by 
Asser  of  the  interview  which  at  last  turned  the 
King  to  literary  work. 

"  On  a  certain  day,"  the  Bishop  writes,  "  we  were 
both  sitting  in  the  King's  chamber,  talking  on  all 
kinds  of  subjects  as  usual,  and  it  happened  that 
I  read  to  him  a  quotation  out  of  a  certain  book. 
He  heard  it  attentively  with  both  his  ears,  and 
addressed  me  with  a  thoughtful  mind,  showing  me 
at  the  same  moment  a  book  which  he  carried  in  his 
bosom,  wherein  the  daily  courses,  and  psalms,  and 
prayers  which  he  had  read  in  his  youth  were  written, 
and  he  commanded  me  to  write  the  same  quotation 
in  that  book.  Hearing  this,  and  perceiving  his  in- 
genuous benevolence,  and  devout  desire  of  studying 
the  words  of  divine  wisdom,  I  gave,  though  in 
secret,  boundless  thanks  to  Almighty  God,  who  had 

12»  R 


274  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

implanted  such  a  love  of  wisdom  in  the  King's 
heart.  But  I  could  not  find  any  empty  space  in 
that  book  wherein  to  write  the  quotation,  for  it  was 
already  full  of  various  matters  ;  wherefore  I  made 
a  little  delay,  principally  that  I  might  stir  up  the 
bright  intellect  of  the  King  to  a  higher  acquaintance 
with  tlie  divine  testimonies.  Upon  his  urging  me 
to  make  haste  and  write  it  quickly,  I  said  to  him, 
'  Are  you  willing  that  I  should  write  that  quotation 
on  some  leaf  apart  ?  For  it  is  not  certain  whether 
we  shall  not  find  one  or  more  other  such  extracts 
which  will  please  you ;  and  if  that  should  so 
happen,  we  shall  be  glad  that  we  have  kept  them 
apart.'  '  Your  plan  is  good,'  said  he  ;  and  I  gladly 
made  haste  to  get  ready  a  sheet,  in  the  beginning  of 
which  I  wrote  what  he  bade  me ;  and  on  that  same 
day  I  wrote  therein,  as  I  had  anticipated,  no  less 
than  three  other  quotations  which  pleased  him  ;  and 
from  that  time  we  daily  talked  together,  and  found 
out  other  quotations  which  pleased  him,  so  that  the 
sheet  became  filU,  and  deservedly  so ;  according  as 
it  is  written,  'The just  man  builds  upon  a  moderate 
foundation,  and  by  degrees  passes  to  greater  things.' 
Thus,  like  a  most  productive  bee,  he  flew  here  and 
there,  asking  questions  as  he  went,  until  he  had 
eagerly  and  unceasingly  collected  many  various 
flowers  of  divine  Scripture  with  which  he  thickly 
stored  the  cells  of  his  mind. 

"  Now  when  that  first  quotation  was  copied,  he 
was  eager  at  once  to  read,  and  to  interpret  in  Saxon, 
and  then  to  teach  others.  The  King,  inspired  by 
God,  began  to  study  the  rudiments  of  divine  Scrip- 
ture on  the  sacred  solemnity  of  St  Martin  [Nov.  11], 


THE  KING   AS   AUTHOR.  275 

and  he  continued  to  learn  the  flowers  collected  by 
certain  masters,  and  to  reduce  them  into  the  form 
of  one  book,  as  he  was  then  able,  although  mixed 
one  with  another,  until  it  became  almost  as  large  as 
a  psalter.  This  book  he  called  his  Enchiridion  or 
Manual  [Handbook],  because  he  carefully  kept  it 
at  hand  day  and  night,  and  found,  as  he  told  me,  no 
small  consolation  therein." 

Tiiis  handbook  is  unfortunately  lost,  and  the  only 
authentic  notices  of  its  contents  are  two  passages  in 
William  of  Malmesbury's  "  Life  of  Bishop  Adhelm." 
From  these  it  would  seem  that  the  handbook  was 
not  a  mere  commonplace  book  of  passages  copied 
from  the  books  of  famous  authors,  but  that  Alfred 
was  himself  gathering  in  it  materials  for  a  history 
of  his  country.  The  first  passage  cited  merely 
corrects  a  statement  that  Bishop  Adhelm  was  the 
nephew  of  King  Ina.  The  second  relates  how 
"  King  Alfred  mentions  that  a  popular  song  which 
was  still  sung  in  the  streets  was  composed  by  Ad- 
helm ;  adding  the  reason  why  such  a  man  occupied 
himself  with  things  which  appear  to  be  frivolous. 
The  people  at  that  time  being  half  barbarians,  and 
caring  very  little  about  church  sermons,  used  to  run 
home  as  soon  as  mass  had  been  chanted.  For  this 
reason  the  holy  man  would  stand  on  a  bridge  which 
leads  from  the  town  to  the  country,  and  would  meet 
them  on  their  way  home  like  one  whose  profession 
is  the  art  of  singing.  Having  done  so  more  than 
once,  he  obtained  the  favor  of  the  people,  who 
flocked  round  him.  IMixing  by  this  device  by  and 
by  tlie  words  of  Holy  Scripture  with  his  playful 
songs,   he   led  the  people   back   to   a  proper  life. 


276  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

Wliereas,  if  he  had  prefeiTed  to  act  severely,  and  by 
excommunication,  he  would  never  have  gained  any- 
thing by  it."  This  one  specimen  of  the  handbook 
which  remains  to  us  must  heighten  our  regret  at  the 
loss  of  the  remainder. 

THE   HISTORY   OF   OROSIUS. 

The  most  arduous  of  all  the  King's  literary  labors 
must  have  been  the  reproduction  of  "  The  Univer- 
sal History  of  Paulus  Orosius  "  in  Anglo-Saxon,  for 
Alfred's  work  can  scarcely  be  called  a  translation. 
He  abridges,  paraphrases,  or  enlai^es  at  discretion, 
often  leaving  out  whole  chapters,  and  in  places  in- 
serting entirely  new  matter.  The  scope  of  the  work 
is  summed  up  by  its  author  in  a  passage  of  the 
forty-tliird  chapter  of  the  last  book  (which  Alfred 
has  omitted),  in  which  he  addresses  his  friend  St. 
Augustine,  Bishop  of  Hippo.  "  I  have  now  set  out," 
writes  Orosius,  "  by  the  help  of  Christ,  and  in 
obedience  to  your  desire,  O  most  blessed  fatlier 
Augustine,  the  lusts  and  punishments  of  sinful  men, 
the  conflicts  of  the  ages,  and  the  judgments  of  God, 
from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  the  present  time  ; 
that  is  to  say,  for  5617  years."  This  history  had 
the  highest  repute  in  Alfred's  time,  and  for  centuries 
afterwards,  though  it  is  not  a  compilation  which 
would  now  interest  any  but  curious  readers. 

Orosius  was  born  in  Spain  about  A.  D.  380,  at 
Tarragona,  and,  like  the  great  majority  of  the  most 
active  intellects  of  his  day,  took  orders  early  in  life. 
The  idea  of  the  Universal  History  was  suggested  to 
him  by  St.  Augustine,  who  appreciated  the  industry 
and  ability  of  the  young  Spanish  priest,  and  wished 


THE   KING  AS   AUTHOR.  277 

for  his  help  in  the  work  which  he  was  himself 
enga^j^ed  upon.  This  was  his  treatise  "  Be  civitate 
Dei,"  intended  to  refute  the  scandalous  assertions 
of  pagan  liomans,  that  Christianity  had  injured 
mankind  rather  than  benefitad  them.  Tliese  writers 
founded  their  argument  on  the  misfortunes  which 
had  befallen  the  Empire,  and  particularly  on  tlie 
recent  sack  of  Rome  by  Alaric  (A.  D.  410).  All 
these  they  attributed  to  Christianity,  maintaining 
that  since  Christ's  coming  there  had  been  no  pros- 
perity or  victories  for  Rome,  whose  glory  and  empire 
had  miserably  declined.  In  his  "City  of  God" 
Augustine  was  himself  showing,  from  the  history 
of  the  Church,  that  the  world  was  the  better  for 
Revelation.  Having  come  already  to  his  tenth  book, 
the  good  Bishop  seems  to  have  become  conscious 
of  a  weak  point  in  his  line  of  defence.  In  order  to 
prove  his  case,  the  world  as  well  as  the  Church 
must  be  called  as  a  witness ;  and  Orosius  undertook 
this  part  of  the  task  by  his  desire. 

The  young  Spaniard  had  already  proved  himself 
an  able  penman  in  a  commentary  on  the  heresies 
of  Priscillian  and  Origen.  Augustine's  opinion  of 
him  appears  in  the  letter  of  introduction  with  which, 
in  A.  D.  415,  he  sent  him  to  St.  Jerome,  who  was 
then  living  at  Bethlehem  preparing  his  translation 
of  the  Scriptures,  which  has  since  become  the  Vul- 
gate. Notwithstanding  his  successful  commentary, 
it  would  seem  there  were  points  as  to  the  nature 
and  origin  of  the  soul  on  which  Orosius  was  not 
sure  of  his  own  ground.  Augustine,  with  the  utmost 
frankness,  admits  his  own  inability  to  clear  them  up, 
and  so  sends  the  young  man  on  to  the  greatest  liv- 


278  LIFE    UF   .U.FJJED   THE   GREAT. 

ing  scholar,  writing  of  him,  "  Behold  there  has  come 
to  me  a  godly  young  man,  in  catholic  peace  a  broth- 
er, in  age  a  son,  in  rank  a  co-presbyter,  Orosius  by 
name,  —  of  active  talents,  ready  eloquence,  ardent 
industry,  longing  to  be  in  God's  house  a  vessel  use- 
ful for  disproving  false  and  destructive  doctrines, 
which  have  destroyed  the  souls  of  the  Spaniards 
more  grievously  than  the  swords  of  the  heathen  their 
bodies.  He  has  hastened  hither  from  the  shore  of 
the  ocean,  hoping  to  learn  from  me  whatever  of 
these  matters  he  wished  to  know ;  but  lie  lias  not 
reaped  the  fruit  of  his  labor.  First  I  desired  him 
not  to  trust  too  much  to  fame  respecting  me ;  next 
I  taught  him  what  I  could,  and  what  I  could  not 
I  told  him  where  he  might  learn,  and  advised  him 
to  come  to  you.  As  he  has  willingly  acceded  to 
my  advice,  or  command,  I  have  asked  him  on  his 
leaving  you  that  he  would  come  to  us  on  his  way 
home."  On  his  return  to  Africa,  Orosius  compiled 
his  History  of  the  World  from  Adam  to  Alaric,  ded- 
icating it  to  St.  Augustine.  It  must  have  been  a 
work  of  extmordinary  labor,  having  regard  to  the 
opportunities  and  materials  at  his  command,  but  is 
now  only  interesting  as  a  curiosity.  Mindful  of  the 
object  of  St.  Augustine,  Orosius  sprinkles  his  narra- 
tion here  and  there  with  moral  Christian  sentiments, 
as  when  he  comes  to  Busiris  sacrificing  strangers : 
"  I  would  now  that  those  would  answer  me  who  say 
that  this  world  is  now  worse  under  Christianity  than 
it  was  under  heathendom.  Where  is  there  now  in 
any  part  of  Christendom  that  men  need  dread 
amongst  themselves  to  be  sacrificed  to  any  gods  ? " 
or  again  when  speaking  of  Phalaris's  bull :  "  Why  do 


THE    KING   AS    AUTHOR.  279 

men  complain  of  these  Christian  times,  and  say  that 
they  are  worse  than  former  times,  when  though  tliey 
were  with  those  kings  doing  evil  at  their  desire, 
they  might  yet  find  no  mercy  from  them  ?  But  now 
kings  and  emperors,  though  a  man  sin  against  their 
will,  yet,  for  love  of  God,  grant  forgiveness  according 
to  the  degree  of  guilt."  For  the  rest,  the  History 
rambles  about  from  country  to  country,  in  a  gossip- 
ing, unconnected  manner ;  and,  though  probal^ly  the 
best  account  of  human  affairs  available  to  Alfred, 
would  scarcely  detain  us  but  for  the  additions  which 
he  has  made  to  the  text. 

Of  these,  by  fiir  the  most  remarkable  are  the 
accounts  of  the  Xorthern  voyages  of  Othere  and 
Wulfstan,  two  of  Alfred's  sea-captains.  Orosius's 
first  book  is  devoted  to  the  geograpliy  of  the  world, 
and  gives  the  boundaries  of  the  three  continents, 
and  some  description  of  the  countries  and  people 
who  inhabit  them,  until  he  comes  to  the  Swedes. 
Then  Alfred  abruptly  leaves  the  text  of  Orosius, 
having  himself  something  much  more  satisfactory 
as  to  those  Xorthern  parts  to  set  before  his  people. 
"  Othere  told  his  lord,  King  Alfred,'"  he  breaks  in, 
"  that  he  dwelt  northward  of  all  the  Northmen.  He 
said  that  he  dwelt  in  the  land  to  the  northward, 
along  the  west  sea ;  he  said,  however,  that  that  land 
is  very  long  north  from  thence,  but  it  is  all  waste 
except  in  a  few  places  where  the  Fins  here  and  there 
dwell,  for  hunting  in  the  winter,  and  in  the  summer 
for  fishing  in  that  sea."  Then  follows  the  descrip- 
tion of  Othere's  famous  Xorthern  voyage,  on  which 
he  started  with  the  true  instincts  of  an  explorer, 
wishing;  to  know  how  far  the  laud  extended  to  the 


280  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

North,  and  whether  any  one  lived  on  the  other  side 
of  the  waste.  The  description  is  minute  of  the 
nnniber  of  days'  sail  which  the  old  Northman  made, 
but  where  he  went  precisely  has  puzzled  all  the 
scholars  who  have  ever  examined  the  question  to 
decide.  It  seems  clear,  however,  that  he  actually 
sailed  round  tlie  North  Cape,  and  down  into  the 
White  Sea,  and  that  Alfred  means  to  include  the 
whole  of  Europe  north  of  the  Danube  in  the  word 
Germania.  The  rnly  people  Otliere  finds  in  Scan- 
dinavia are  the  Fins  and  Beormas  :  the  former  let- 
ting their  lands  lie  waste,  and  subsisting  on  fishing, 
fowling,  and  huntinjr  •  the  latter  having  well-culti- 
vated  lands.  Othere  found  in  these  parts  whales 
with  "  very  noble  bones  in  their  teeth,"  some  of 
which  he  brought  to  the  King,  and  ship-ropes  made 
of  their  hides.  But  he  thouglit  little  of  this  species 
of  whale,  as  he  calls  them,  having  far  better  whale- 
hunting  in  his  own  country,  where  the  whales  are 
most  of  them  fifty  ells  long.  Of  these,  he  said,  he 
and  five  others  had  killed  sixty  in  two  days. 

Othere  told  his  king  further  of  his  own  home  in 
"  the  shire  called  Halgoland,"  and  how  he  had  600 
tame  reindeer  of  his  own,  six  of  which  were  decoy- 
deer,  very  valuable.  Alfred  adds  that  he  M'as  one 
of  the  first  men  of  that  country,  "  but  had  not  more 
than  twenty  homed  cattle,  and  twenty  sheej),  and 
twenty  swine ;  and  the  little  that  he  ploughed,  he 
ploughed  with  horses."  But  the  wealth  of  Othere 
and  the  other  great  men  of  those  parts,  the  King 
adds,  comes  for  the  most  part  from  rent  paid  by  tlie 
Fins,  —  for  what  does  not  appear,  so  we  may  sup- 
pose that  it  was  for  permission  to  live,  and  hunt. 


THE   KING   AS   AUTHOR.  281 

and  fish.  This  rent  "  is  in  skins  of  animals,  and 
birds'  feathers,  and  in  whalebone,  and  in  ships' 
ropes  made  of  whales'  hide,  and  of  seals."  Every 
man  pays  according  to  his  birth  :  "  the  best  born,  it 
is  said,  pay  the  skins  of  fifteen  martens,  and  five 
reindeers,  and  one  bear-skin,  ten  ambers  of  feathers, 
a  bear's  or  otter's  skin  kyrtle,  and  two  ship-roi>es, 
each  sixty  ells  long." 

Wulfstan's  voyage  from  Sleswig  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Vistula  follows,  with  gossip  worthy  of  Herodo- 
tus as  to  the  Esthonians,  or  inhabitants  of  Eastland, 
who  lived  at  the  junction  of  the  "Elbing"  with 
that  river :  "  Eastland  is  very  large,  and  there  are 
in  it  many  towns,  and  in  every  town  a  king ;  and 
there  is  also  great  abundance  of  honey  and  fish ; 
and  the  king  and  the  richest  men  diink  mares' 
milk,  and  the  poor  and  the  slaves  drink  mead. 
They  have  many  contests  amongst  themselves ;  and 
there  is  no  ale  brewed  among  the  Esthonians,  for 
tliere  is  mead  enough."  These  Esthonians,  Alfred 
notes  from  Wulfstan,  have  the  strangest  customs 
with  respect  to  burials  and  successions.  The  bodies 
of  dead  men  are  kept  unburnt  as  long  as  possible 
by  the  relatives,  according  to  their  wealth ;  kings 
and  other  great  people  lying  in  state  for  half  a  year. 
Tliey  are  able  to  manage  this  liecause  among  the 
Esthonians  "  there  is  a  tribe  which  can  produce 
cold,  and  so  the  dead  in  whom  they  produce  that 
cold  lie  very  long  there  and  do  not  putrefy ;  and  if 
any  one  sets  two  vessels  full  of  ale  or  water,  they 
contrive  that  one  shall  be  frozen,  be  it  summer  or 
he  it  winter."  It  is  this  discovery  which  enables 
the  funerals  of  great  men  to  be  postponed  for  long 


2ii'J.  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

intervals,  according  to  the  riches  of  the  deceased. 
All  the  while  tho  body  is  above  ground  there  are 
drinking  and  sports,  which  last  till  the  day  of 
burial  or  burning,  as  the  case  may  be.  "  On  that 
day  they  divide  the  dead  man's  property  into  five 
or  six  portions,  according  to  value,  and  place  it  out, 
the  largest  portion  about  a  mile  from  the  dwelling 
where  the  dead  man  lies,  then  another,  then  a  third, 
and  so  on  till  it  is  all  laid  within  the  mile.  Then 
all  the  neighbors  within  five  or  six  miles,  who  have 
swift  horses,  meet  and  ride  towards  the  property ; 
and  he  who  has  the  swiftest  horse  comes  to  the  first 
and  largest  portion,  and  so  each  after  other  till  the 
whole  is  taken ;  and  he  takes  the  least  portion  who 
takes  that  which  is  nearest  the  dwelling :  and  then 
every  one  rides  away  with  the  property,  and  they 
may  have  it  all ;  and  on  this  account  swift  horses 
are  there  excessively  dear,"  —  as  we  should  conjec- 
ture. 

But  although  such  accounts  of  the  customs  and 
habits  of  the  people  amongst  whom  his  captains 
went  are  didy  set  down  by  Alfred,  his  main  object 
in  this  part  of  the  work  is  to  lay  down  the  geog- 
raphy of  Germany,  the  cradle  of  his  own  race,  as 
accurately  as  possible.  The  longest  of  the  other 
additions  by  Alfred  to  his  author's  text  is  the  de- 
scription of  a  Pioman  triumph ;  but  there  are  a 
great  number  of  smaller  additions,  such  as  the  refer- 
ence to  the  climate  of  Ireland,  which  Alfred  says  is 
warmer  than  that  of  England,  and  the  fixing  of  the 
spot  where  C.iesar  crossed  the  Thames  at  Walling- 
ford.  Again,  he  omits  constantly  whatever  in  his 
judgment  was  immaterial,  thus  in  all  ways  aiming 


THE    KING    AS   ALTHOR.  283 

to  make  his  book  as  useful  as  possible  for  those 
whom  it  was  his  chief  aim  in  all  his  literary  work 
to  raise  and  instruct. 

bede's  "ecclesiastical  history." 

The  next  important  work  which  bears  the  King's 
name  is  the  translation  of  Bede's  "  Ecclesiastical 
History  of  the  English  Nation."  Bede  was  "  mass- 
priest  of  the  monastery  of  the  blessed  apostles  Peter 
and  Paul,  wliicli  is  at  Were  Mouth,"  and  his  famous 
history  extends  from  the  landing  of  Julius  Caesar  to 
the  year  731,  when  Keolwulf — to  whom  the  book 
is  dedicated  as  one  "  very  careful  of  old  men's  words 
and  deeds,  and  most  of  all  of  the  great  men  of  our 
nation  "  —  was  king  of  Xorthumbria.  In  that  time 
of  peace  "  many  in  the  kingdom  of  Xorthumbria, 
both  noble  and  ignoble,  yearn  more,"  Bede  tells  his 
king,  "  to  give  themselves  and  their  children  to 
monasteries  and  to  God's  service,  than  they  exercise 
worldly  warfare.  What  end  the  thing  is  to  have, 
the  coming  age  will  see  and  behold."  We  have 
partly  seen  what  came  of  it  a  century  later.  Alfred 
treated  the  Ecclesiastical  History  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  he  had  treated  Orosius  ;  freely  omitting,  and 
abridging  ;  and  correcting  when  his  own  knowledge 
as  a  West  Saxon  was  more  accurate  than  that  of 
the  venerable  mass-priest,  who  had  probably  never 
wandered  fifty  miles  from  the  monastery  at  Were 
^louth. 

BOETHIUS. 

The  "  Consolations  of  Philosophy,"  which  Alfred 
also  translated,  forms  a  striking  contrast  to  the  two 


284  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 

historical  works  already  noticed.  Gibbon  calls  it 
"  a  golden  book,  not  unworthy  the  leisure  of  Plato 
or  Tally "  ;  and  Dr.  Hook,  "  the  handbook  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  for  all  who  united  piety  with  ])hilos- 
ophy  "  ;  and  it  has  had  two  other  illustrious  English 
translators,  —  Chaucer  and  Queen  Elizabeth. 

Boethius  was  a  pious  and  learned  Eoman  senator, 
who  was  consul  A.  D.  487,  two  years  before  the 
invasion  of  Italy  by  Theodoric  the  Ostrogoth.  For 
many  years  he  continued  in  favor  at  court,  and  lived 
to  see  the  consulate  of  his  sons.  But  he  incurred 
the  anger  of  Theodoric  for  an  attack  on  the  Arian 
heresy,  and  for  the  boldness  with  which  he  main- 
tained the  ancient  rights  of  the  senate,  and  was 
banished  from  Eome,  and  imprisoned  at  Pavia. 
Here,  before  his  execution,  A.  D.  526,  he  wrote  the 
"  Consolations,"  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  between 
himself,  or  his  mind,  and  Wisdom,  or  Eeason.  The 
burden  of  the  work  is,  that  every  fortune  is  good 
for  men,  whether  it  seem  good  to  them  or  evil,  and 
that  we  ought  with  all  our  power  to  inquire  after 
God,  every  man  according  to  the  measure  of  liis 
understanding,  a  philosophy  which  Alfred's  whole 
life  illustrated,  and  which  he  was  naturally  anxious 
to  impress  upon  his  people. 

There  is  a  short  preface  to  the  King's  version, 
which  is  held  by  Dr.  Pauli  to  be  the  work  of  some 
other  hand  ;  but  if  not  by  Alfred,  it  is  full  of  the 
manliness  and  humility  which  distinguished  him, 
and  explains  so  well  the  method  of  all  his  literary 
work,  that  it  cannot  be  omitted  here  :  — 

"  King  Alfred  was  translator  of  this  book,  and 
turned  it  from  book-Latin  into  English,  as  it  is  now 


THE   KING    AS   AUTHOK.  285 

done.  Sometimes  he  set  word  by  word,  sometimes 
meaning  by  meaning,  as  he  the  most  plainly  and 
most  clearly  could  explain  it,  for  the  various  and 
manifold  worldly  occupations  which  often  busied 
him  both  in  mind  and  in  body.  The  occupations 
are  to  us  very  difficult  to  be  numbered  which  in  his 
days  came  upon  the  kingdom  which  he  had  under- 
taken, and  yet  wlien  he  had  learned  this  book,  and 
turned  it  from  the  Latin  into  the  English  language, 
he  afterwards  composed  it  in  verse,  as  it  is  now 
done.  And  he  now  prays,  and  for  God's  name  im- 
plores every  one  of  those  who  list  to  read  this  book, 
that  he  would  pray  for  him,  and  not  blame  him,  if 
he  more  rightly  understand  it  than  he  coidd.  For 
every  man  must,  according  to  the  measure  of  his 
understanding,  and  according  to  his  leisure,  spsak 
that  which  he  speaketh,  and  do  that  which  he 
doeth." 

There  is  extant  a  translation  of  Boethius  into 
Saxon  verse,  as  mentioned  in  this  preface,  but  it 
would  seem,  in  the  judgment  of  the  best  scholars, 
not  to  have  been  the  work  of  Alfred. 

GREGORY'S  PASTORAL. 

Gregory's  "  Pastoral  Care "  was  also  translated 
by  the  King ;  to  it  is  prefixed  the  introduction  ad- 
dressed by  him  to  Bishop  Werefrith,  from  which 
quotations  have  been  already  made.  It  commences 
with  a  description  of  the  sad  decay  of  learning  in 
England,  and  an  exhortation  to  the  Bishop  that  he, 
who  is  at  leisure  from  the  things  of  this  world,  will 
bestow  the  wisdom  which  God  has  given  him  where- 
ever  he  is  able  to  bestow  it.     "  Think  what  punish- 


286  LIFE   OF  ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

ment  shall  come  upon  us  on  account  of  this  world, 
when  we  have  not  ourselves  loved  it  in  the  least 
degree,  or  enabled  other  men  so  to  do.  AVe  have 
had  the  name  alone  of  Christians,  and  very  few 
of  the  virtues.  When  I  then  called  to  mind  all 
this,  then  I  remembered  how  I  saw,  ere  that  all  in 
them  was  laid  waste  and  burnt  up,  how  the  churches 
throughout  all  the  English  race  stood  filled  with 
treasures  and  books,  and  also  a  great  multitude  of 
God's  servants ;  but  they  knew  very  little  use  of 
those  books,  for  that  they  could  not  understand  any- 
thing of  them,  because  they  were  not  written  in 
their  own  language,  such  as  they  our  elders  spoke." 
The  King  goes  on  to  wonder  why  those  good  and 
wise  men,  who  loved  wisdom  themselves,  and  got 
wealth  arid  left  it,  had  never  been  willing  to  turn 
any  of  the  books  they  knew  so  well  into  their  own 
language.  But  he  soon  answered  himself  that  they 
must  have  left  it  undone  of  set  purpose,  that  there 
mioht  be  more  wisdom  and  knowledixe  of  lan£ruaQ;es 
in  the  land.  However,  he  will  do  what  he  can  now 
to  remedy  all  this.  "  Wherefore  I  think  it  better, 
if  it  also  appears  so  to  you,  that  we  two  should 
translate  some  books,  which  are  the  most  necessary 
for  all  men  to  understand  ;  that  we  should  turn  these 
into  that  tongue  which  we  all  can  know,  and  so 
bring  it  about,  as  yre  very  easily  may,  with  God's 
help,  if  we  have  rest,  that  all  the  youth  that  now  is 
among  the  English  race,  of  free  men,  that  have  prop- 
erty, so  that  they  can  apply  themselves  to  these 
things,  may  be  committed  to  others  for  the  sake  of 
instruction,  so  long  as  they  have  no  power  for  any 
other  employments,  until  the  time  that  they  may 


THE   KING   AS   AUTHOR.  287 

know  well  how  to  read  En-jflish  v.Titinc'.  Let  men 
afterwards  further  teach  them  Latin,  those  whom 
they  are  williug  further  to  teach,  and  whom  they 
wish  to  advance  to  a  higher  state. 

"  When  I  then  called  to  mind  how  the  learning 
of  tlie  Latm  tongue  before  this  was  fallen  away 
throughout  the  English  race,  though  many  knew 
how  to  read  writing  in  En'jjliGh ;  then  began  I, 
among  other  unlike  and  manifold  businesses  of  this 
kin'^dom,  to  turn  into  English  the  book  that  is 
named  in  Latin  '  Pastoralis,'  and  in  English  the 
'  Hind's  book,'  one-whUe  word  for  word,  another- 
while  meaning  for  meaning,  so  far  as  I  learned  it 
with  Plegmund  my  archbishop,  and  witli  Asser  my 
bishop,  and  with  Grimbold  my  mass-priest,  and  with 
John  my  mass-priest.  After  I  had  then  learned 
them,  so  that  I  understood  them,  and  so  that  I 
might  read  them  with  the  fullest  comprehension,  I 
turned  them  into  English,  and  to  each  bishop's  see 
in  my  kingdom  will  send  one,  and  on  each  is  an 
'  testel,'  that  is  of  the  value  of  fifty  mancuses,  and  I 
bid,  in  God's  name,  that  no  man  undo  the  sestel 
from  the  books  nor  the  books  from  the  minster.  It 
is  unknown  how  long  there  may  be  so  learned 
bishops  as  now,  thank  God,  are  everywhere.  For 
this,  I  would  that  they  always  should  be  at  their 
place,  unless  the  bishop  will  have  them  with  him, 
or  they  be  anywhere  lent,  or  some  one  write  others 
by  them." 

There  are  several  manuscript  copies  of  the  "  Pas- 
toral Care  "  in  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  public  libraries 
of  the  country',  which  are  supposed  to  be  some  of 
those  referred  to  in  Alfred's  introduction  as  having 


288  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

been  sent  by  liim  as  presents  to  his  bisbops.  The 
sestel,  worth  fifty  mancuses,  \vhich  accompanied  each 
copy,  has  disappeared.  Alfred,  to  judge  from  the 
care  with  which  he  provided  for  its  circulation 
places  more  value  on  tliis  than  on  any  other  of  his 
works.  To  us  it  is,  perhaps,  the  least  valuable,  being 
occupied  chiefly  with  the  difficulty  and  importance 
of  the  teacher's  or  priest's  office,  the  danger  of  filling 
it  unworthily,  and  the  duty  of  all  who  are  thoroughly 
competent  to  undertake  it  to  do  so,  bearing  in  mind 
that  he  who  is  himself  under  the  dominion  of  evil 
habits  makes  a  bad  intercessor  for,  or  teacher  of, 
other  men. 

BLOSSOM   GATHERINGS   FROM   ST.   AUGUSTINE. 

The  "  sayings  Avhich  King  Alfred  gathered "  out 
of  the  writings  of  St.  Augustine  are  perhaps  the 
most  instructive  of  all  his  works,  as  they  show  best 
where  his  natural  bent  carried  him,  and  what  he 
himself  valued  most,  and  desired  most  to  give  to 
his  people.  His  own  portion  of  the  work  consists 
of  some  three  clauses  of  introductory  matter.  Tliese 
begin  so  abruptly,  that  it  is  supposed  that  some  sen- 
tences are  lost.  Alfred  describes  himself  as  in  a 
wood  full  of  comely  trees,  fit  for  javelins  and  stud 
shafts,  and  helves  to  all  tools,  and  bay  timbers  and 
bolt  timbers.  "  In  every  tree  I  saw  something,"  the 
King  writes,  "  which  I  needed  at  home,  therefore  I 
advise  every  one  who  is  able  and  has  many  wains, 
that  he  trade  to  the  same  wood  where  I  cut  the  stud 
shafts,  and  there  fetch  more  for  himself,  and  load 
his  wain  with  fair  rods,  that  he  may  wind  many  a 
neat  wall,  and  set  many  a  comely  house,  and  build 


THE   KING   AS   AUTHOR.  28^ 

many  a  fair  town  of  them ;  and  thereby  may  dwell 
merrily  and  softly,  so  as  I  now  yet  have  not  done. 
But  He  who  taught  me,  to  whom  the  wood  was 
agreeable,  he  may  make  me  to  dwell  more  softly  in 
this  temporary  cottage,  the  while  that  I  am  in  this 
world,  and  also  in  the  everlasting  home  which  he 
has  promised  us  through  St.  Augustine,  and  St. 
Gregory,  and  St.  Jerome,  and  through  many  other 
holy  tVithers  ;  as  I  believe  also  that  for  the  merits 
of  all  these  he  will  make  the  way  more  convenient 
than  it  was  before,  and  especially  enlighten  the  eyes 
of  my  mind,  so  that  I  may  search  out  the  right  way 
to  the  everlasting,  home  and  the  everlasting  glory, 
and  the  everlasting  rest  which  is  promised  us 
through  those  holy  fathers.  May  it  be  so  ! "  Then 
he  reverts  to  his  original  idea  of  working  in  a  wood. 
"It  is  no  wonder  though  men  swink  in  timber 
working,  and  in  the  carrying  and  the  building :  but 
every  man  wishes,  after  he  has  built  a  cottage  on  his 
lord's  lease  by  his  help,  that  he  may  sometimes  rest 
him  therein,  and  hunt,  and  fowl,  and  fish,  and  use 
it  every  way  under  the  lease,  both  on  water  and  on 
laud,  imtil  the  time  that  he  earn  bookland  and 
everlasting  heritage  through  his  lord's  mercy.  So 
do  the  wealthy  Giver,  who  wields  both  these  tem- 
porary cottages  and  the  eternal  homes.  May  He 
who  shaped  both,  and  wields  both,  grant  me  that  I 
be  meet  lor  each,  both  here  to  be  profitable  and 
thither  to  come !  "  There  is  something  very  touch- 
ing in  this  opening,  in  which  Alfred  allows  his  fancy 
to  play  round  the  idea  of  a  woodman,  like  one  of 
his  own  churls,  cutting  timber  for  his  house  and 
his  weapons,  and  building  on  his  lord's  laud,  in  tbe^ 

13  s 


290  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

hope  of  one  day  realizing  the  object  of  every  Saxon 
man's  ambition,  a  permanent  dwelling,  booklaud  of 
his  own ;  and  in  the  side-glance  at  his  own  life  of 
incessant  toil,  and  longing  for  a  home  where  a  man 
may  dwell  "  merrily  and  softly  "  in  summer  and 
winter,  "  so  as  I  now  yet  have  not  done."  It  is  only 
a  glance  which  he  allows  himself,  and  then  the 
strong  fighter  turns  back  to  his  work,  trusting  that 
He  who  has  shaped  and  wields  both  lives  may  grant 
him  "both  here  to  be  profitable  and  thither  to 
come."  One  more  short  passage  introduces  his 
gatherings  to  those  for  wiiom  they  were  made. 
"Augustine,  Bishop  of  Carthage,"  he  writes,  "  wrouglit 
two  books  about  his  own  mind.  The  books  are 
called  ■'  Soliloquiorum,'  that  is,  of  his  mind's  mus- 
ing and  doubting,  how  his  reason  answered  liis  mind 
when  his  mind  doubted  about  anything,  or  wished 
to  know  anything  which  it  could  not  understand 
before." 

The  "  blossom  gatherings "  all  bear  upon  the 
problem  with  which  Alfred  then  opens  them,  by 
the  quotation  of  St.  Augustine's  saying,  "  that  his 
mind  went  often  asking  of  and  searching  out  various 
and  rare  things,  and  most  of  all  about  himself, 
what  he  was :  whether  his  mind  and  his  soul  were 
mortal  and  perishing,  or  ever  living  and  eternal ; 
and  again  about  his  good,  what  it  was,  and  what 
good  it  were  best  for  him  to  do,  and  what  evil  to 
avoid." 

THE  king's  proverbs. 

The  last  of  the  works  attributed  to  Alfred  which 
need  be  specially  mentioned,  is  the  collection  of 


THE   KING   AS   AUTHOR.  291 

proverbs,  or  sayings,  in  verse  and  prose,  found 
amongst  tlie  Cotton  manuscripts.  It  is  a  compila- 
tion of  much  later  date  than  the  ninth  century, 
written  in  a  broken  dialect,  between  the  original 
Saxon  and  English.  The  compiler  has  put  together 
some  thirty-one  stanzas  and  paragraphs,  each  of 
which  begins,  "  Thus  quoth  Alfred,  England's  com- 
fort," or  "  England's  herdsman,"  or  "  England's 
darling,"  and  the  coDection  is  prefaced  by  a  short 
notice  in  verse  of  the  occasion  on  which  the  sayings 
are  supposed  to  have  been  spoken. 

"  At  Sifford  there  sate  many  thanes, 
Many  bishop*,  many  learned. 
With  earl?,  and  awful  knights; 
There  was  Karl  Alfrich  verj'  learned  in  the  law; 
There  also  was  Alfred,  England's  herdsman, 

England's  darling; 
He  was  iiing  of  England,  he  taught  them, 

All  who  could  hear  him. 
How  they  should  lead  tiieir  lives. 
Alfred  was  a  king  of  England,  that  was  very  strong. 
He  was  both  king  and  scholar,  he  loved  well  God's  work; 
He  was  wise  and  advised  in  his  talk; 
He  was  the  wisest  man  that  was  in  all  England." 

This  introduction  would  seem  to  point  to  some 
particular  witan,  held  probably  at  Seaford,  or  Shif- 
ford,  near  Bainpton,  in  Oxfordshire,  the  tradition  of 
which  was  still  fresh.  There  is  no  mention  in  the 
Saxon  Chronicle,  or  elsewhere,  of  any  such  assembly, 
but  some  of  the  sayings  bear  a  strong  resemblance 
to  parts  of  Alfred's  writings,  and  may  have  been 
accurately  handed  down  and  reported.  A  specimen 
or  two  will  be  enough.    The  opening  saying  runs  :  — 

"Thus  quoth  Alfred,  England's  comfort: 
O  that  you  would  now  love  and  long  after  your  LordI 
He  would  govern  you  wisely, 


292  LIFE   OF    ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

That  you  rniglit  have  honour  in  this  world 
And  yet  unite  your  souls  to  Christ." 

Then  come  a  series  of  instructions  to  kings  and 
officei-sof  state,  on  the  education  of  young  men  and 
children,  and  on  the  use  of  wealth,  in  which  the 
King,  speaking  to  his  nobles  and  to  his  children, 
enforces  the  direct  responsibility  of  all  men  to 
Christ,  and  the  worthlessness  of  wealth  unless  dis- 
creetly used,  —  old  ideas  enough,  a  thousand  years 
ago,  and  as  needful  of  repetition  then  as  now 

"  Thus  quoth  Alfred,  England's  comfort;  the  earl 
And  the  Athelingare  under  the  king, 
To  govern  the  land  according  to  law; 
The  priest  and  the  knight  must  both  alike  judge  uprightly; 
For  as  a  man  sows 
So  shall  he  reap, 
And  every  man's  judgment  comes  home  to  him  to  his  own  doors." 

In  almost  the  last  of  the  series,  the  King  ad- 
dresses his  son  :  — 

"  Thus  quoth  Alfred  :  My  dear  son,  sit  thou  now 
beside  me,  and  I  will  deliver  thee  true  instruction. 
My  son,  I  feel  that  my  hour  is  near,  my  face  is  pale, 
my  days  are  nearly  run.  We  nuist  soon  part.  I 
shall  to  another  world,  and  thou  shalt  be  left  alone 
with  all  my  wealth.  I  pray  thee,  for  thou  art  my 
dear  child,  strive  to  be  a  father  and  a  lord  to  thy 
people  ;  be  thou  the  children's  father,  and  the  wid- 
ow's friend ;  comfort  thou  the  poor  and  shelter  the 
weak,  and  with  all  thy  might  right  that  which  is 
wrong.  And,  my  son,  govern  thyself  by  law,  then 
shall  the  Lord  love  thee,  and  God  above  all  things 
shall  be  thy  reward.  Call  thou  upon  him  to  advise 
thee  in  all  thy  need,  and  so  lie  shall  help  thee  the 
better  to  compass  that  which  thou  wouldest." 


THE  KING    AS    AUTHOR.  293 

Besides  the  works  already  mentioned,  there  is  a 
long  list  of  original  writings  and  translations  attrib- 
uted to  Alfred.  Of  the  former,  Spelnian  gives  ten, 
including  "selections  from  the  laws  of  the  Giesks, 
Britons,  Saxons,  and  Danes,"  and  original  treatises 
"against  unjust  judges,"  on  "the  uncertain  fortunes 
of  kings,"  and  "  the  acts  of  magistrates,"  and  "  a  man- 
ual of  meditations."  Of  the  latter,  the  "  Dialogues 
of  Pope  Gregory,"  and  translations  of  parts  of  the 
Scriptures,  are  the  only  works  of  his  as  to  which 
there  is  anything  like  a  concurrence  of  testimony, 
and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  former  was 
the  work  of  Bishop  Werefrith  under  Alfred's  super- 
vision. An  old  manuscript  history  of  Ely  is  the 
authority  for  the  statement  that  he  translated  the 
whole  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  into  Saxon ; 
but  the  better  opinion  seems  to  be,  that  the  Psalms 
were  the  only  portions  of  the  Scriptures  which  he 
undertook  to  translate,  and  that  he  "was  at  work  on 
his  Saxon  Psalter  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


294  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE    GREAT. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

THE   king's   DEATH   AND   AVILL. 

"  A  good  life  hath  few  years,  but  a  good  name  endureth  forever." 
"  Honorable  age  is  not  that  which  standeth  in  length  of  time,  nor  that 
is  measured  by  uumber  of  years." 

THE  world's  hardest  w^orkers  and  noblest  bene- 
factors have  rarely  been  long-lived.  The  con- 
stant wear  and  stress  of  such  a  life  as  Alfred's  must 
tell  its  tale,  and  the  wonder  is,  not  that  he  sliould 
have  broken  down  so  soon,  but  that  he  should  have 
borne  the  strain  so  long. 

In  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  "  six  days  be- 
fore AU-H alio wm ass,"  or  on  the  26th  of  October, 
901,  "  died  Alfred,  the  son  of  Ethelwulf.  He  was 
king  over  the  whole  English  nation,  except  that  part 
which  was  under  the  dominion  of  the  Danes,  and 
he  held  the  kingdom  a  year  and  a  half  less  than 
thirty  years,  and  then  Edward  his  son  succeeded 
him."  Such  is  the  simple  account  of  the  great 
King's  ending  in  the  Saxon  Chronicle.  It  under- 
states the  length  of  his  reign  by  a  year.  Florence 
and  the  other  chroniclers  tell  us  nothing  more,  ex- 
cept that  his  body  was  buried  in  the  new  monastery 
at  Winchester,  which  he  had  himself  founded,  and 
which  his  son  was  destined  to  finish. 

We  know  neither  the  place  nor  cause  of  his  death ; 
and  there  is  some   dispute  as  to  his  burial-place. 


THE    KINGS    DEATH    XSl)    WILL.  295 

Some  of  the  chroniclers  name  the  church  of  St. 
Peter;  otliers,  tlie  Xew  Minster  monaster}'.  The 
conflicting  accounts  are  reconciled  by  a  story,  that 
the  canons  of  the  cathedral  churcli,  from  jealousy 
of  Grimbald  and  the  monks  of  the  new  monastery, 
declared  that  the  spirit  of  Alfred  could  not  rest,  but 
might  be  seen  wandering  at  night  within  their  pre- 
cincts ;  whereupon  Edward  at  once  removed  his 
father's  coffin  to  the  monastery.  In  the  time  of 
Henry  I.,  when  the  abbey  of  Xew  Minster  was  re- 
moved to  Hyde  from  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  the  cathedral,  Alfred's  remains  were  carried  with 
them,  and  there  rested  till  the  Eeformation,  when 
the  royal  tombs  were  broken  open  at  ths  dissolution 
of  the  monastery.  But  the  "  pious  Dr.  liichard 
Fox,"  bishop  of  Winchester,  had  the  remains  of  the 
kings  collected  carefully  and  put  into  chests  of  lead, 
with  inscriptions  on  each  of  them,  showing  whose 
bones  were  within ;  and  the  chests  were  placed, 
under  his  supervision,  on  the  top  of  a  wall  of  rare 
workmanship,  which  he  was  building  to  enclose  the 
presbytery  of  the  catliedral.  Here  the  dust  of  the 
great  King  rested  till  the  taking  of  Winchester  by 
the  Pailiamentary  troops,  under  Sir  William  Waller, 
on  the  l-4th  of  December,  1642.  The  Puritan  sol- 
diers, amongst  other  outrages,  threw  down  and  broke 
open  Bishoj)  Fox's  leaden  chests,  and  scattered  the 
contents  all  over  the  cathedral.  When  the  first  ex- 
citement of  the  troops  had  cooled  down,  what  were 
left  of  the  bones  of  our  early  kings  were  reverently 
collected,  and  carried  to  Oxford  and  "  lodged  in  a 
repository  building  next  the  public  library." 

The  country  had  enjoyed  such  profound  peace  for 


296  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

the  four  years  preceding  the  King's  death,  that  for 
two  of  them  the  Saxon  Clironicle  has  no  entry  at  all, 
and  only  mentions  the  deaths  of  the  Alderman  of 
Wiltshire  and  the  Bishop  of  London  in  898.  In 
Simeon's  Chronicle  it  is  stated  that  Bishop  Eardulf, 
who  had  carried  the  remains  of  St.  Cuthbert  about 
for  nine  years  through  the  northern  counties,  hiding 
from  King  Halfdene's  robber  troops,  and  who  had 
at  last  been  able  to  deposit  them  in  a  shrine  of  his 
own  cathedral,  died  in  the  same  year  with  Alfred. 
It  is  pleasant  to  know  that  our  "  most  noble  miser 
of  his  time "  must  have  seen  of  the  travail  of  his 
soul  and  been  satisfied  in  those  last  years.  His 
grievous  disease  had  abated  in  his  forty-fifth  year, 
and  he  closed  his  eyes  on  peace  at  home  and  abroad, 
in  church  and  state,  abundance  in  the  field  and  in 
the  stall,  and  order  and  justice  established  in  every 
corner  of  his  kingdom :  "  His  name  shall  endure 
under  the  sun  amongst  the  posterities,  and  all  the 
people  shall  praise  him." 

The  last  monument  of  his  justice  and  patriotism 
is  his  will,  of  which  happily  a  perfect  copy  was  pre- 
served in  the  archives  of  the  abbey  of  Xew  Minster. 
The  opening  recitals  have  been  already  quoted. 
They  show  liow  anxious  he  was  that  the  memory 
of  the  agreement  between  himself  and  his  brother 
should  be  kept  alive ;  and  now,  in  pursuance  of  that 
agreement,  he  devises  eight  manors  to  ^Etheline,  the 
elder  son  of  his  brother  Ethelward ;  and  to  Ethel- 
w^ald,  the  younger,  the  manors  of  Guildford,  Godal- 
ming,  and  Steyning.  The  principal  part  of  liis  lands 
in  Wilts  and  Somersetshire,  including  the  famous 
royal  burgh  of  Wedmore,  he  leaves  to  Edward,  coupled 


THE    king's    death    AND    WILL.  1197 

with  a  touching  referenca  to  some  arrangement 
which  he  had  made  at  some  time  with  his  tanants 
at  Cheddar :  "  And  I  am  a  petitioner  to  the  families 
at  Ceodre,  that  they  will  choose  him  (Edward)  on 
the  conditions  that  we  liad  formerly  expressed." 
All  his  other  children  have  gifts  of  manors,  and 
to  his  wife  he  leaves  the  manors  of  "Wantage,  Lam- 
bourn,  and  Ethandune.  The  field  of  Ashdown  is 
scarcely  three  miles  from  Lambourn,  and  may  well 
have  been  included  in  that  manor.  If  this  be  so,  the 
King  left  to  his  faithful  helpmate  his  birthplace, 
and  the  scenes  of  his  two  great  victories. 

His  personalty  is  also  distributed  justly  and  mu- 
nificently. To  each  of  his  sons  he  leaves  500  pounds ; 
to  his  wife  and  daughters,  100  pounds  each.  To 
each  of  his  aldermen  and  his  nephews,  100  man- 
cuses ;  and  to  Ethelred,  a  sword  of  the  value  of  100 
mancuses.  Like  legacies  are  left  to  Archbishop 
Ethelred,  and  to  Bishops  Werefrith  and  Asser.  Then 
turning  to  his  servants  and  the  poor,  he  bequeaths 
"200  pounds  for  those  men  that  follow  me,  to  whom 
I  now  at  Eastertide  give  money,"  to  be  divided  be- 
tween them  after  the  manner  that  he  had  up  to  this 
time  distributed  to  them.  "  Also,"  he  continues, 
"  let  them  distribute  for  me,  and  for  my  father,  and 
for  the  friends  that  he  interceded  for,  and  I  intercede 
for,  200  pounds,  —  50  to  the  mass-priests  over  all 
my  kingdom,  50  to  the  poor  ministers  of  God,  50  to 
the  distressed  poor,  50  to  the  church  that  I  shall 
rest  at.  And  I  know  not  certainly  whether  there  be 
so  much  money  ;  nor  I  know  not  but  that  there  may 
be  more,  but  so  I  suppose.  If  it  be  more,  be  it  all 
common  to  them  to  whom  I  have  bequeathed  money. 

13* 


2\}ii  LIVE    or    ALFRED    THE    GliEAT. 

And  I  will  that  my  aldermen  and  councillors  be  all 
tliere  together  and  sq  distribute  it." 

He  then  declares  that  in  former  times,  when  he 
had  more  propei'ty  and  more  relations,  he  had  made 
other  wills  which  he  had  burned,  all  at  least  that  he 
could  recover.  If  any  of  these  should  be  found,  let 
it  stand  for  nothing.  And  he  wills  that  all  those 
who  are  in  possession  of  any  of  the  lands  disposed 
of  by  his  father's  will  should  fulfil  the  intentions 
there  expressed  the  soonest  they  may,  and  that  if 
any  debt  of  his  remains  outstanding  his  relations 
should  pay  it. 

Then  follows  the  passage  on  the  strength  of  which 
Alfred  is  cited  as  the  author  of  entails  in  England: 
"  And  I  will  that  the  men  to  whom  I  have  given 
my  booklands  do  not  give  it  from  my  kindred  after 
their  day,  but  I  will  that  it  go  unto  the  highest  hand 
to  me,  unless  any  one  of  them  have  children,  then 
it  is  to  me  most  agreeable  that  it  go  to  that  issue  on 
the  male  side  so  long  as  any  be  worthy.  My  grand- 
father gave  his  lands  to  the  spear  side,  not  to  the 
spindle  side.  Wherefore  if  I  have  given  to  any 
woman  what  he  had  acquired,  then  let  ray  relations 
redeem  it,  if  they  will  have  it,  while  she  is  living ; 
if  otherwise,  let  it  go  after  their  day  as  we  have  de- 
termined. For  this  reason  I  ordain  that  they  pay 
for  it,  because  they  will  succeed  to  my  estates,  which 
I  may  give  either  to  the  spindle  side  or  the  spear 
side,  as  I  will." 

Lasth'',  he  is  mindful  of  the  slaves  on  his  lands, 
whose  condition  he  had  greatly  improved,  but  whom 
he  had  not  been  able  entirely  to  free.  "  And  I  be- 
seech, in  God's  name,  and  in  his  saints',  that  none 


THE    king's    death    AND    WILL.  299 

of  my  relations  do  obstruct  none  of  the  freedom  of 
those  I  have  redeemed.  And  for  me  the  West  Saxon 
nobles  have  pronounced  as  lawful,  that  I  may  leave 
them  free  or  bond,  whether  I  will.  But  I,  for  God's 
love  and  my  soul's  health,  will  that  they  be  masters 
of  their  freedom  and  of  their  will ;  and  I,  in  the 
living  God's  name,  entreat  that  no  man  do  not  dis- 
turb them,  neither  by  money  exaction,  nor  by  no 
manner  of  means,  tiiat  they  may  not  choose  such 
man  as  they  Till.  And  I  will  that  they  restore  to 
tlie  families  at  Domerham  their  land  deeds  and 
their  free  liberty,  such  master  to  choose  as  may  to 
tliem  be  most  agreeable,  for  my  sake,  and  for  Ethel- 
fleda's,  and  for  the  friends  that  she  did  intercede 
for,  and  I  do  intercede  for."  These  Domerliam 
families  of  churls  would  seem  to  have  dwelt  on 
some  estate  in  which  the  lady  of  Mercia  was  joint- 
ly interested  with  her  father.  "  And  let  them  "  (my 
relations  and  beneficiaries)  "  seek  also  with  a  living 
price  for  my  soul's  health,  as  it  may  be  and  is  most 
fitting,  and  as  ye  to  forgive  me  shall  be  disposed." 

These  are  the  last  words  which  "  England's  Shep- 
herd "  left  to  his  country.  It  is  no  easy  task  for  any 
one  who  has  been  studying  liis  life  and  works  to 
set  reasonable  bounds  to  their  reverence  and  enthu- 
siasm for  the  man.  Lest  the  reader  should  think  my 
estimate  tainted  witli  the  proverbial  weakness  of  bi- 
ographers for  their  heroes,  let  them  turn  to  the  words 
in  which  the  earliest  and  the  last  of  the  English  his- 
torians of  that  time  sum  up  the  character  of  Alfred. 
Florence  of  Worcester,  writing  in  the  century  after 
his  death,  speaks  of  him  as  "  that  famous,  warlike, 
victorious  king ;  the  zealous  protector  of  widows. 


300  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

scholars,  orphans,  and  the  poor ;  skilled  in  the  Saxon 
poets  ;  affable  and  lil^eral  to  all ;  endowed  with  pru- 
dence, fortitude,  justice,  and  temperance ;  most  patient 
under  the  infirmity  which  he  daily  suft'ered  ;  a  most 
stern  inquisitor  in  executing  justice ;  vigilant  and 
devoted  in  the  sendee  of  God."  Mr.  Freeman,  in 
liis  "History  of  the  Xorman  Conquest,"  has  laid 
down  the  portrait  in  bold  and  lasting  colors,  in  a 
passage  as  truthful  as  it  is  eloquent,  which  those 
■who  are  familiar  with  it  will  be  glad  to  meet  again, 
while  those  who  do  not  know  it  will  be  grateful  to 
me  for  substituting  for  any  poor  words  of  my  own. 
"Alfred,  the  unwilling  author  of  these  great 
changes,  is  the  most  perfect  character  in  histor}'. 
He  is  a  singular  instance  of  a  prince  who  has  be- 
come a  hero  of  romance,  who,  as  such,  has  had 
countless  imaginary  exploits  attributed  to  him,  but 
to  whose  character  romance  has  done  no  more  than 
justice,  and  who  appears  in  exactly  the  same  light 
in  history  and  in  fable.  No  other  man  on  record 
has  ever  so  thoroughly  united  all  the  virtues  both 
of  the  ruler  and  of  the  private  man.  In  no  other 
man  on  record  were  so  many  virtues  disfigured  by 
so  little  alloy.  A  saint  without  superstition,  a 
scholar  without  ostentation,  a  warrior  all  whose 
"wai-s  were  fought  in  the  defence  of  his  country,  a 
conqueror  whose  laurels  were  never  stained  by 
cruelty,  a  prince  never  cast  downi  by  adversity, 
never  lifted  up  to  insolence  in  the  day  of  triumph, 
—  there  is  no  other  name  in  history  to  compare 
with  his.  Saint  Lewis  comes  nearest  to  him  in  the 
union  of  a  more  than  monastic  piety  with  the  high- 
est civil,  military,  and  domestic  virtues.     Both  of 


THE   king's    death   AND    WILL.  301 

them  staDcl  forth  in  lionorable  contrast  to  the  ahject 
superstition  of  some  other  royal  saints,  who  were 
so  selfishly  engaged  in  the  care  of  their  own  souls 
that  they  refused  either  to  raise  up  heirs  for  their 
throne,  or  to  strike  a  blow  on  behalf  of  their  peo- 
ple. But  even  in  Saint  Lewis  we  see  a  disposition 
to  forsake  an  immediate  sphere  of  duty  for  the  sake 
of  distant  and  unprofitable,  however  pious  and 
glorious,  undertakings.  The  true  duties  of  the 
King  of  the  French  clearly  lay  in  France,  and  not 
in  Egypt  or  Tunis.  Xo  such  charge  lies  at  the  door 
of  the  great  King  of  the  West  Saxons.  With  an 
inquiring  spirit  which  took  in  the  wliole  world,  for 
purposes  alike  of  scientific  inquiry  and  of  Christian 
benevolence,  Alfred  never  forgot  that  his  first  duty 
was  to  his  own  people.  He  forestalled  our  own 
age  in  sending  expeditions  to  explore  the  Xorthem 
Ocean,  and  in  sending  alms  to  tlie  distant  Churches 
of  India ;  but  he  neither  forsook  his  crown,  like 
some  of  his  predecessors,  nor  neglected  his  duties, 
like  some  of  his  successors.  The  virtue  of  Alfred, 
like  the  virtue  of  Washington,  consisted  in  no  mar- 
vellous displays  of  superhuman  genius,  but  in  the 
simple,  straightforward  discharge  of  the  duty  of  the 
moment.  But  Washington,  soldier,  statesman,  and 
patriot,  like  Alfred,  has  no  claim  to  Alfred's  further 
characters  of  saint  and  scholar.  William  the  Silent, 
too,  has  nothing  to  set  against  Alfred's  literary 
merits  ;  and  in  his  career,  glorious  as  it  is,  there  is 
an  element  of  intrigue  and  chicanery  utterly  alien 
to  the  noble  simplicity  of  both  Alfred  and  Wash- 
ington. The  same  union  of  zeal  for  religion  and 
learning  with  the  hiijhest  gifts  of  the  warrior  and 


302  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

the  statesman  is  found,  on  a  wider  field  of  action^ 
in  Cliarles  the  Great.  But  even  Charles  cannoc 
aspire  to  the  pure  glory  of  Alfred.  Amidst  all  the 
splendor  of  conquests  and  legislation,  we  cannot  be 
blind  to  an  alloy  of  personal  ambition,  of  personal 
vice,  to  occasional  unjust  aggressions,  and  occasional 
acts  of  cruelty.  Among  our  own  later  princes,  the 
great  Edward  alone  can  bear  for  a  moment  the  com- 
parison with  his  glorious  ancestor.  And,  when  tried 
by  such  a  standard,  even  the  great  Edward  fails. 
Even  in  him  we  do  not  see  the  same  wonderful 
union  of  gifts  and  virtues  which  so  seldom  meet 
together ;  we  cannot  acquit  Edward  of  occasional 
acts  of  violence,  of  occasional  recklessness  as  to 
means  ;  we  cannot  attribute  to  him  the  pure,  sim- 
ple, almost  childlike  disinterestedness  which  marks 
the  character  of  Alfred." 

Let  Wordsworth,  on  behalf  of  the  poets  of  Eng- 
land, complete  the  picture. 

"  Behold  a  pupil  of  the  monkish  pown, 
The  p  ons  Alfred,  kino;  to  justice  dear! 
Lord  of  the  harp  and  liberating  spear; 
Mirror  of  princes!     Indigent  renown 
Might  range  the  starry  etlier  for  a  crown 
Equal  to  his  deserts,  wiio.  like  the  year, 
Pours  forth  his  bounty,  like  the  day  doth  cheer, 
And  awes  like  night,  with  mercy-tempered  frown. 
Ease  from  this  noble  miser  of  his  time 
No  moment  steals;  pain  narrows  not  his  cares, — 
Though  small  his  kingdom  as  a  spark  or  gem, 
Of  Alfred  bojists  remo'e  Jerusalem, 
And  Christian  India,  through  her  wide-spread  clime^ 
In  sacred  converse  gifts  with  Alfred  shares." 


THE  king's  successors.  303 

CHAPTER    XXV. 

THE  king's   successors. 
"  A  good  man  leaveth  an  inheritance  unto  his  children's  children." 

THE  death  of  Alfred  was  the  signal  for  a  revolt 
of  his  younger  nephew  Ethelwald,  against  the 
decision  of  the  witan,  who  named  Edward  as  his 
father's  successor.  Etlielwald  was  a  reckless,  violent 
man,  who  had  scandalized  the  nation  by  taking  to 
wife  a  nun,  "  without  the  King's  leave,  and  against 
the  Bishop's  command."  He  seized  the  royal  castles 
of  Wimborne  and  Christchurch,  and  in  the  former, 
the  Clironicle  tells  us,  "  sat  down  with  those  who 
had  submitted  to  him,  and  had  obstructed  all  the 
approaches  towards  him,  and  said  that  he  would  do 
one  of  two  things,  —  or  there  live,  or  there  lie.  But, 
notwithstanding  that,  he  stole  away  by  night  and 
sought  the  army  in  Xorthumbria,  who  received  him 
as  their  overlord,  and  became  obedient  to  him." 

This  effort  of  Ethelwald  only  proved  the  sound- 
ness of  the  foundations  of  the  kingdom  which 
Alfred  had  laid.  The  Pretender  fled  from  Wessex 
and  ]\Iercia  without  being  able  to  break  the  peace, 
and  was  not  heard  of  again  for  two  years.  In  904, 
however,  he  came  with  a  fleet  of  Northmen  to 
Essex,  and  a  portion  of  the  Danish  people  there 
submitted  to  him.  The  next  year  he  was  strong 
enough  to  attack  his  cousin,  and  penetrated  through 
Mercia  to  the  Thames,  which  he  crossed  at  Cricklade, 
and    committed   some   depredations  in    Berkshira 


304  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GP,E\T. 

Edward  was  not  in  time  to  catch  him  in  Wessex, 
and  so  followed  liim  with  a  strong  force  across 
AVatling  Street,  into  East  Anglia,  and  there  overran 
"  all  the  land  between  the  dikes  and  the  Ouse,  as 
far  north  as  the  fens."  Kot  having  been  able  to 
bring  Ethel wald  to  an  action,  Edward  turned  south 
again,  and,  being  in  an  enemy's  country,  and  in  face 
of  a  strong  army,  "  proclaimed  through  his  whole 
force  that  they  should  all  return  together.  Then 
the  Kentish  men  remained  there  behind,  notwith- 
standing his  ordere,  and  seven  messengers  he  had 
sent  to  them "  ;  and,  Ethelwald  falling  on  them,  a 
general  action  was  brouglit  on,  in  which  the  loss  on 
both  sides  was  very  great,  but  on  the  Danish  side 
both  Ethelwald,  and  Eohric  king  of  East  Anglia, 
were  slain,  and  soon  afterwards  Edward  made  peace 
with  the  East  Angles  and  Xorthumbrians. 

Ethelred  of  Mercia  died  in  910,  and  London  and 
Oxford  were  incorporated  in  Wessex.  In  the  next 
year  the  Danes  broke  the  peace  again,  relying  prob- 
ably on  the  weakness  of  a  woman's  ride  in  ^lerci^. 
But  the  lady  of  ^Mercia  proved  as  formidable  an 
enemy  as  her  lord.  In  concert  with  her  brother  she 
not  only  drove  the  Danes  out  of  her  own  boundaries, 
but  won  from  them,  and  made  safe,  one  stronghold 
after  another  in  the  midland  counties.  Tims  in 
913,  while  Edward  invaded  Essex,  and  took  and 
fortified  Hertford,  "  Ethelfleda,  lady  of  the  Mercians, 
went  with  all  the  Mercians  to  Tam worth,  and  there 
built  a  fortress  early  in  the  summer ;  and,  before 
Lammas,  anotlier  at  Stafford." 

Again,  in  915,  she  fortifies  Cherbury,  Warburton, 
and  Runcorn ;  in  916,  defeats  the  Welsh,  and  storms 
BreGkaock ;  and  in  9^17,  -"  God  helping  her,  got  pos- 


THE  king's   successors.  3Uo 

session  of  the  fortress  which  is  called  Derby,  and  all 
that  owed  obedience  thereto :  and  there  within  the 
gates  were  slain  four  of  her  tlianes,  whicli  caused 
her  much  sorrow."  Edward  in  the  mean  while  was 
steadily  e.Ktendiug  his  frontier,  and  gaining  the  alle- 
giance of  many  Danish  nobles,  such  as  Thurkytel, 
the  earl,  who  "  souglit  to  him  to  be  his  lord,  and 
all  the  captains,  and  almost  all  the  chief  men 
who  owed  obedience  to  Bedford,  and  also  many  of 
those  who  owed  obedience  to  Northampton."  The 
lady  of  ]\lercia  died  in  918  at  Tamworth,  when  the 
whole  of  ^lercia  came  to  Edward,  whose  niece  Elf- 
wina,  the  only  child  of  Etlielred  and  Ethelfleda, 
came  to  her  uncle's  court  in  Wessex. 

Tlius  the  kingdom  grew  under  his  hand,  disturbed 
frequently  by  raids  of  the  Welsh  and  Danes,  but  on 
the  whole  steadily  and  surely.  The  North  Welsh 
souglit  him  to  their  overlord  in  922,  and  in  924 
"the  King  of  the  Scots,  and  the  whole  nation  of 
the  Scots,  and  all  tliose  who  dwelt  in  Northumbria, 
chose  him  for  father  and  for  lord."  In  the  next 
year  he  died,  and  Athelstan  was  elected  by  the 
witan,  and  consecrated  at  Kingston.  Dunstan,  who 
was  fated  to  bring  such  misery  on  the  royal  family, 
and  on  the  nation,  was  born  in  the  same  year. 

For  fifteen  years  Athelstan  ruled  with  vigor  and 
success,  extending  still  the  English  frontiers.  He 
gave  the  South  Britons  the  Tamar  instead  of  the 
K\e  as  their  boundary,  and  occupied  Nortlnimbria 
himself  after  Sigtric,  the  king,  liad  deserted  his 
Saxon  wife  Edith,  Athelstan's  sister.  In  937  Scots, 
Danes,  Welsh,  and  a  great  host  from  Ireland,  led  by 
Anlaf,  a  son  of  Sigtric  by  a  former  maiTiage,  made 
a  desperate  effort  to  shake  off  the  over-lordship  of 


306        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

Atlielstan.  Anlaf  landed  in  the  Humber,  and  after 
effecting  a  junction  with  kis  allies,  laid  siege  to 
York,  which  was  held  for  Athelstan.  Tlie  siege 
was  raised  by  the  news  of  Athelstan's  crossing  the 
Humber  on  his  march  to  the  relief  of  the  northern 
capital,  and  soon  afterwards  the  battle  of  Brumby, 
near  Beverley,  was  fought,  in  which  the  allies  were 
utterly  defeated,  and  five  kings  slain.  The  victory 
was  so  complete,  and  of  so  great  significance,  that 
even  the  Saxon  Chronicle  breaks  away  from  its 
usual  severe  matter-of-fact  form  into  a  song  of 
triumph.  A  spirited  poem,  describing  the  battle, 
and  singing  the  praises  of  Athelstan,  and  his  young 
brother  Edmund  the  Etheling,  is  given  for  the  year 
937.  The  ring  of  it  is  like  the  death-song  of  Ilegner 
Lodbrog,  as  it  tells  how. 

"  West  Saxons  onward  That  they  in  war's  works 

Throughout  the  day  The  better  men  were 

In  bands  In  the  battle-stead 

Pursned  tlie  footsteps  At  the  nieetiiip  of  spears, 

Of  the  loathed  nations.  Tha'  they  on  the  slaughter  field 

*        *        *        *  With  Edward's  offspring  played." 
They  had  no  cause  to  laugh 

and  how 

"  King  and  Etheling  And  the  gray  beast 

Both  together  Wolf  of  the  wood. 

Tlieir  countrj-  sought,  Carnage  greater  has  not  been 

West  Saxon  land;  In  this  island 

Leaving  behind  them,  Ever  yet, 

Tlie  corses  to  devour,  Of  people  slain 

The  yellow  kite,  By  edge  of  sword; 

The  swarthy  raven  As  books  us  tell, 

With  horned  nib,  Old  writers, 

And  du«ky  •  pada,'  Since  from  the  East  hither 

Erne  whire-failed,  Angles  and  Saxons 

Greedy  war-hawk.  Came  to  land." 

Edmund  the  Etheling  succeeded  his  brother  in 
940,  and  on  his  death  in  946,  Edred,  the  youngest  of 


THE   K1>G  Ji    bUCCESsOllS.  3U7 

the  sons  of  Edward,  was  elected  king;  Edwi  and 
Edgar,  the  sous  of  Edmund,  being  still  minors. 
Both  of  these  grandsons  of  Alfred  pursued  their 
father's  policy,  and  Edred  finally  annexed  Xorthum- 
bria,  and  divided  it  into  shires,  over  which  he  set 
his  own  earls.     He  died  in  955. 

Thus  for  two  generations  Alfred's  descendants  in- 
herited his  courage  and  ability,  and  carried  on  with 
signal  success  one  part  of  his  work.  To  quot-e 
Wordsworth's  sonnets  once  more  :  — 

"  The  race  of  Alfred  covet  plorions  pains 
When  dangers  threaten,  dangers  ever  new. 
Black  tempests  burstiEC,  bhiqker  still  in  view ! 
But  manly  sovereignty  its  hold  retains: 
The  root  sincere,  the  branches  bold  to  striTO 
With  the  fierce  tempest" 

There  is,  unfortunately,  little  proof  of  the  truth 
of  the  beautiful  concluding  lines, — 

"  While  wi'hin  the  round 
Of  their  protection  gentle  virtues  thrive; 
As  oft,  mid  some  green  spot  of  open  ground, 
Wide  as  the  oak  extends  its  dewy  gloom 
The  fostered  hyacinths  spread  their  purple  bloom  " 

Kather  it  would  seem  that  in  that  half-century, 
during  which  England  had  become  one  vast  camp, 
the  learning  and  the  arts  of  peace  which  Alfred  had 
so  wisely  and  nobly  fostered  were  fast  slipping  away 
from  the  people;  and  corruptions  had  again  crept 
into  monasteries  and  convents  (enriched  rapidly  by 
the  race  of  devout  warrior  princes),  which  rendered 
necessary  the  reforms  of  Dunstan  and  Bishop  Ethel- 
wald  on  the  one  hand,  and  led  to  the  disastrous  col- 
lisions between  Church  and  State  on  the  other. 
But  Me  are  not  concerned  with  the  later  history, and 
it  is  only  noticed  thus  far  to  show  that  the  King's 
example  continued  to  inspire  his  son  and  son's  sons. 


30S  LIFE    OF    ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE   END    OF   THE   WHOLE   MATTER. 

"  Hear  therefore,  0  ye  kings,  and  understand ;  learn,  ye  that  be  judges 
of  the  ends  of  the  eartli. 

"  For  power  is  given  you  of  the  Lord,  and  sovereignty  from  the  High- 
est, wlio  shalj  try  your  works,  and  search  out  your  councils." 

THE  readers  of  this  series  are  specially  invited 
to  look  at  the  Inen  and  events  "which  are 
bronght  before  them  from  a  religious  point  of  view. 
That  is  the  central  idea  of  the  hooks,  and  the  wTit- 
ers  may  fairly  assume  that  the  public  they  are 
addressing  is  a  Christian  public.  The  controversy 
which  has  arisen  again  in  our  time,  and  is  deeply 
stirring  men's  minds,  as  to  the  foundations  of  our 
faith,  —  the  question  whether  Christianity  is  or  is 
not  true,  —  does  not  directly  concern  us  here.  That 
controversy  must  always  be  one  of  deep  interest, 
even  to  Christians  who  take  no  part  in  it.  AVe 
ought  to  welcome  with  all  our  liearts  the  searching 
scrutiny,  which  students  and  philosophers  of  all 
Christian  nations,  and  of  all  shades  of  belief,  whether 
Christian  or  not,  are  engaged  upon,  as  to  the  facts 
on  which  our  faith  rests.  The  more  thorough  that 
scrutiny  is,  the  better  should  we  be  pleased.  We 
may  not  wholly  agree  with  the  last  position  which 
the  ablest  investigators  have  laid  down,  that  unless 
the  truth  of  the  history  of  our  Lord  —  the  facts  of 
his   life,  death,   resun'ection,  and   ascension  —  can 


THE   EXD    OF   THE   WHOLE   MATTER.  309 

be  proved  by  ordinary  historical  evidence,  applied 
according  to  the  most  approved  and  latest  methods, 
Christianity  must  be  given  up  as  not  true.  We 
know  that  our  own  certainty  as  to  these  facts  does 
not  rest  on  a  critical  historical  investigation,  while 
we  rejoice  that  such  an  investigation  should  be  made 
by  those  who  have  leisure,  and  who  are  competent 
for  it.  At  the  same  time,  as  we  also  know  that  the 
methods  and  principles  of  historical  investigation 
are  constantly  improving  and  being  better  under- 
stood, and  that  the  critics  of  the  next  generation 
will  work,  in  aU  human  likelihood,  at  as  great  an 
advantage  in  this  inquiry  over  those  who  are  now 
engaged  in  it,  as  our  astronomers  and  natural  phi- 
losophers enjoy  over  Xewton  and  Franklin,  —  and 
as  new  evidence  may  turn  up  any  day  which  may 
greatly  modify  their  conclusions,  —  we  cannot  sup- 
pose that  there  is  the  least  chance  of  their  settling 
the  controversy  in  our  time.  Xor,even  if  we  thought 
them  likely  to  anive  at  definite  conclusions,  can  we 
consent  to  wait  the  result  of  their  investigations, 
important  and  interesting  as  these  will  be.  Grant- 
ing then  cheerfully,  that  if  these  facts  on  the  study 
of  which  they  are  engaged  are  not  facts,  —  if  Christ 
was  not  crucified,  and  did  not  rise  from  the  dead, 
and  ascend  to  God  his  father,  —  there  has  been  no 
revelation,  and  Christianity  will  infallibly  go  the 
way  of  all  hes,  either  under  their  assaults  or  those 
of  their  successors,  —  they  must  pardon  us  if  even 
at  the  cost  of  being  thought  and  called  fools  for  our 
pains,  we  deliberately  elect  to  live  our  lives  on  the 
contrary  assumption.  It  is  useless  to  tell  us  that 
we  know  nothing  of  these  things,  that  we  can  know 


310  LIFE    OF   ALFRED    THE   GKEAT. 

nothing  until  their  critical  examination  is  over ;  we 
can  only  say,  "  Examine  away ;  but  we  do  know 
something  of  this  matter,  whatever  you  may  assert 
to  the  contrary,  and  mean  to  live  on  that  knowl- 
edge." 

But  while  we  cannot  suspend  our  judgment  on 
the  question  until  we  know  how  the  critics  and 
scholars  have  settled  it,  we  must  do  justice,  before 
passing  on,  to  the  single-mindedness,  the  reverence, 
the  resolute  desire  for  the  truth  before  all  things, 
wherever  the  search  for  it  may  land  them,  which 
characterizes  many  of  those  who  are  no  longer 
of  our  faith,  and  are  engaged  in  this  inquiry,  or 
have  set  it  aside  as  hopeless,  and  are  working  at 
other  tasks.  The  great  advance  of  natural  science 
within  the  last  few  years,  and  the  devotion  with 
which  many  of  our  ablest  and  best  men  are  throw- 
ing themselves  into  this  study,  are  clearing  the  air  in 
all  the  higher  branches  of  human  thought,  and  making 
possible  a  nation,  and  in  the  end  a  world,  of  truth- 
ful men,  —  that  blessedest  result  of  all  the  strange 
conflicts  and  problems  of  the  age,  which  the  wisest 
men  have  foreseen  in  their  most  hopeful  moods.  In 
this  grand  movement  even  those  who  are  nominally, 
and  believe  themselves  to  be  reaUy,  against  us,  are 
for  us:  all  at  least  who  are  truthful  and  patient 
workers.  For  them,  too,  the  spirit  of  all  truth,  and 
patience,  and  wisdom  is  leading ;  and  their  strivings 
and  victories  —  ay,  and  their  backslidings  and  re- 
verses —  are  making  clearer  day  by  day  that  revela- 
tion of  the  kingdom  of  God  in  nature,  through 
which  it  would  seem  that  our  generation,  and  those 
which  are  to  follow  us,  will  be  led  back  again  to 


THE  END  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.     311 

that  higher  revelation  of  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
man. 

Leaving  then  on  one  side  the  critical  and  histor- 
ical inquiry,  and  starting  from  the  assumption  of 
the  truth  of  revelation  as  commonly  understood 
amongst  us,  and  that  Christ  really  was  what  he 
claimed  to  be,  how  does  this  bear  on  the  question 
from  which  we  started,  —  the  kingship  and  govern- 
ment of  the  nations  and  people  of  the  world  in 
which  we  are  living  ? 

In  order  to  answer  the  question  to  any  good  pur- 
pose for  Englishmen,  we  must  ascertain,  if  possible, 
what  the  common  faith  of  English  Christians  is , 
and  to  do  this  we  may  fairly  turn,  in  the  first  place, 
to  the  Church  of  England,  which  even  yet  speaks 
with  some  authority.  Her  formularies  and  teaching 
have  stood  now  for  three  hundred  years  as  the  ex- 
pression of  the  faith  of  the  English  nation.  This  is 
gathered  up  for  ordinary  persons  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  which  has  been  in  constant  use, 
on  one  day  at  least,  in  every  week,  of  every  year, 
in  every  parish  in  the  land.  We  all  know  that, 
besides  the  forms  of  prayer  contained  in  that  book, 
which  are  common  to  all  days,  there  are  special 
prayers  and  ser\'ices  for  each  week,  and  for  each 
festival,  intended  to  direct  the  mind  of  the  nation 
in  the  act  of  worship  to  some  particular  side  of  the 
truth  which  the  Church  teaches.  Eeferring  to  these, 
we  find  in  the  services  for  all  those  seasons  which 
we,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  Christendom,  esteem 
most  holy,  one  constant  declaration  as  to  the  present 
actual  existence  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  occurring 
over  and  over  again.     Thus,  on  the  first  day  of  the 


312  LIFE    OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

Christian  year,  Advent  Sunday,  we  pray  that  we 
may  cast  away  the  works  of  darkness,  and  rise  to 
the  life  immortal,  "  through  him  who  liveth  and 
reigneth  with  Thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  now  and 
ever."  On  the  Third  Sunday  in  Advent,  in  the  col- 
lect addressed  directly  to  Christ  himself  we  pray 
that  we  may  be  found  an  acceptable  people  "  in  Thy 
sight,  who  livest  and  reignest  with  the  Father  and 
the  Holy  Spirit,  ever  one  God,  world  without  end." 
On  Christmas  Day  the  same  form  occurs,  and  we 
are  again  testifying  that  Christ  "  liveth  and  reign- 
etk"  In  the  collect  for  the  Sixth  Sunday  after 
Epiphany  we  speak  of  "  His  eternal  and  glorious 
kingdom,"  where  He  "  liveth  and  reigneth."  And  so 
agp,in  and  again,  at  the  beginning  of  Lent,  through 
Easter  Week,  on  the  Day  of  Ascension,  the  Sunday 
after  Ascension,  Whitsunday,  Trinity  Sunday,  we 
are  still  in  the  same  key,  repeating  the  same  confes- 
sion, and  declaring  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that 
Christ  the  Son  of  God  has  actually  set  up  his  king- 
dom in  this  w^orld,  and  is,  now  and  always,  "  living 
and  reigning  "  in  it. 

In  the  same  series  of  services  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land places  before  the  people,  day  after  day,  and 
week  after  w^eek,  lessons  and  passages  from  the  Old 
Testament,  for  their  guidance  and  instruction,  and 
these  are  associated  with  passages  from  the  New 
Testament  selected  apparently  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  showing,  that  the  old  covenant  is  not  can- 
celled, but  fulfilled  and  made  perfect  in  the  new. 
By  this  method  we  English  churchmen  have  set 
before  us  in  our  childhood,  and  kept  before  us  all 
our  lives,  that  wonderful  picture  of  a  nation  ruled 


THE   END    OF   THE   WHOLE    MATTER.  313 

directly  by  God  himself,  and  prospering,  or  falling  in- 
to misery  and  confusion,  precisely  as  they  acknowl- 
edge or  refuse  to  acknowledge  this  rule  which  the 
Jewish  history  contains.  Whatever  government  they 
set  up  for  themselves,  the  same  results  follow.  Kings, 
priests,  judges,  whatever  men  succeed  to,  or  usurp,  or 
are  thrust  into  power,  come  immediately  under  that 
eternal  government  which  the  God  of  the  nation 
has  established,  and  the  order  of  which  cannot  be 
violated  with  impunity.  Every  ruler  who  ignores 
or  defies  it  saps  the  national  life  and  prosperity,  and 
brings  trouble  on  his  country,  sometimes  swiftly, 
but  always  surely.  There  is  the  perpetual  presence 
of  a  King,  \vith  whom  rulers  and  people  must  come 
to  a  reckoning  in  every  national  crisis  and  convul- 
sion, and  who  is  no  less  present  when  the  course  of 
affairs  is  quiet  and  prosperous.  The  greatest  and 
wisest  men  of  the  nation  are  those  in  whom  this 
faith  bums  most  strongly.  Elijah's  solemn  opening, 
"  As  the  Lord  liveth,  before  whom  I  stand  "  ;  David's 
pleading,  "  Whither  shall  I  go  then  from  Thy  pres- 
ence, or  whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy  Spirit  ? "  — 
his  confession  that  in  heaven  or  hell,  or  the  utter- 
most parts  of  the  sea,  "  there  also  shall  Thy  hand 
lead,  and  Thy  right  hand  shall  guide  me," —  are 
only  well-known  instances  of  a  universal  conscious- 
ness which  never  wholly  leaves  the  men  or  the 
nation,  however  much  they  may  struggle  to  get  rid 
of  it. 

The  English  Church  thus  forces  on  the  notice  of 

her  members  the  constant  pi-esence  of  God  in  the 

old  world,  and  the  reality  of  his  government  of  the 

nations,  even  of  those  which  were  ignorant  of  him, 

14 


314  LIFE   OF   ALFKED   THE   GREAT. 

She  labors  to  make  clear  to  them  the  sacredness 
of  the  material  earth,  and  the  truth  that  not  only 
on  the  hill  of  Zion,  but  in  the  desert,  on  the  great 
waters,  in  the  city,  as  well  as  in  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  men,  there  was  always  a  Divine  presence 
dwelling.  Then,  through  that  unbroken  series  of 
services  to  which  reference  has  been  made  already, 
she  declares  that  this  presence  has  not  left  the 
earth,  is  not  dwelling  less  with  us  English  than 
with  the  old  Hebrews,  but  has  come  nearer  to  us 
since  the  Son  of  God  took  flesh,  and  revealed  to 
men  that  King  and  Father  under  whose  government 
they  are  living,  and  declared  that  he  would  be  with 
them  always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world. 

This  belief  in  this  Divine  government  of  the 
nations,  which  is  thus  wrought  into  the  whole  teach- 
ing and  confession  of  the  English  Church,  is  prob- 
ably held  by  all  sects  of  nonconformists  amongst 
us.  "Whatever  their  doctrines  may  be  as  to  election 
and  reprobation,  or  any  of  the  other  thousand  and 
one  shibboleths  by  which  men's  faith  is  tested,  and 
too  sorely  tried,  there  is  not  one  of  them  probably 
which,  speaking  authoritatively  and  deliberately, 
would  not  admit  that  Christ  is  "  living:  and  reiim- 
ing,"  not  only  in  the  invisible,  but  here  in  the 
visible  world,  and  that  all  rulers  and  governments 
are  directly  subject,  and  responsible,  to  him. 

Turning  from  the  Church  to  the  nation,  from 
teaching  and  theory  to  life  and  practice,  we  find  at 
every  step  of  our  history  the  most  striking  confirma- 
tion of  this  witness.  The  revolt  against  all  visible 
earthly  authority  in  spiritual  things,  which  had  been 
smouldering  for  centuries,  broke  out  in  England,  as 


THE   END   OF  THE   WHOLE   MATTER.  315 

elsewhere,  at  the  time  of  the  Eeformation.  Once 
for  all,  the  nation  then  declared  that  they  would 
have  no  man  standing  in  the  place  of  the  King  and 
Lord  of  their  souls,  and  assuming  to  dispense  with 
his  laws  ;  that  they  were  not  and  would  not  be 
responsible  to  any  vicar  of  Christ,  but  only  to  God 
himself;  and  Pope  and  priests, and  all  who  support- 
ed them,  must  be  taught  this  in  the  most  direct 
and  thorough  manner.  The  English  King  was  the 
true  representative  of  the  nation  in  this  protest  and 
revolt ;  and  the  moral  sense  and  conscience  of  the 
nation  was  behind  him.  And  so  it  was  solemnly 
declared  by  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  that  "  for  the 
increase  of  virtue  in  Christ's  religion  witliin  this 
realm  of  England,  the  King  our  sovereign  Lord,  his 
heirs  and  successors  kings  of  this  realm,  shall  be  the 
only  supreme  head  on  earth  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land." This  direct  responsibility  of  the  nation,  and 
of  the  King  as  the  nation's  representative,  to  God, 
was  the  root  idea  and  principle  of  the  Reformation 
in  England.  The  Tudor  princes  (with  the  exception 
of  course  of  Queen  ^Mary)  in  their  best  moods 
acknowledged  it,  and  acted  on  it ;  and,  while  they 
did  so,  all  went  well.  Whenever  they  or  their 
successors  forgot  it,  again  and  again  in  the  interven- 
ing 300  years,  it  has  had  to  assert  itself,  often  in  the 
most  unlooked-for  ways,  and  by  the  strangest  wit- 
nesses. And  so  it  stands  in  our  own  day,  the  in- 
heritance of  many  generations,  as  fresh,  as  clear,  as 
strong  as  ever,  —  a  rock  against  which  churches  and 
sects  may  dash  themselves,  but  which  neither  they, 
nor  all  tlie  powers  of  earth,  can  shake. 

Had  our  kings  and  rulers  recognized   that   one 


316  LIFE   OF   ALFRED    THE   GREAT. 

great  principle  of  the  Reformation,  that  there  can 
be  no  spiritual  authority  on  earth  with  the  power  to 
dispense  with  God's  law,  and  bind  and  loose  men's 
consciences,  the  other  great  revolt  might  never  have 
come  at  all.  But  the  Eeformation  had  to  do  its 
work  in  due  course,  in  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
things,  in  the  visible  as  in  the  invisible  world ;  for 
the  Stuart  princes  asserted  in  tempoi-al  matters  the 
powers  which  the  Pope  had  claimed  in  spiritual. 
They,  too,  would  acknowledge  the  sanctity  of  no 
law  above  the  will  of  princes,  —  w^ould  vindicate, 
even  with  the  sword  and  scaffold,  their  own  power 
to  dispense  wdth  laws.  So  the  second  great  revolt 
and  protest  of  the  English  nation  came,  against  all 
visible  earthly  sovereignty  in  things  temporal 
Puritanism  arose,  and  Charles  went  to  the  block, 
and  the  proclamation  went  forth  that  henceforth  the 
nation  w^ould  have  no  king  but  Christ ;  that  he 
was  the  only  possible  king  for  the  English  nation 
from  that  time  forth,  in  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual 
things,  and  that  his  kingdom  had  actually  come. 
The  national  conscience  was  not  with  the  Puritans 
as  it  had  been  with  Henry  at  the  time  of  the  Ref- 
ormation, but  the  deepest  part  of  their  protest  has 
held  its  own,  and  gained  strength  ever  since,  from 
their  day  to  ours.  The  religious  source  and  origin 
of  it  was,  no  doubt,  thrust  aside  at  the  Revolution, 
but  the  sagacious  statesmen  of  1688  were  as  clear 
as  the  soldiers  of  Ireton  and  Ludlow  in  their  resolve, 
that  no  human  will  should  override  the  laws  and 
customs  of  the  realm.  So  they,  too,  required  of 
their  sovereigns  that  they  should  "  solemnly  promise 
and  swear  to  govern  the  people  of  this  kingdom  of 


THE  END  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.      317 

England,  and  the  dominions  thereto  belonging,  ac- 
cording to  the  statutes  in  Parliament  agreed  on,  and 
the  laws  and  customs  of  the  same ;  .  .  .  that  they 
will  to  their  power  cause  law  and  justice  hi  mercy 
to  be  executed  in  all  their  judgments ;  .  .  .  that 
they  will  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  maintain  the 
laws  of  God,  the  true  profession  of  the  Gospel,  and 
the  Protestant  reformed  religion  established  by  law." 
The  same  protest  in  a  far  different  form  came  forth 
again  at  the  great  crisis  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  the  revolutionary  literature  of  France 
had  set  Europe  in  a  blaze,  and  the  idea  of  the  rights 
of  man  had  shrunk  back,  and  merged  in  the  will  of 
the  mob.  Against  this  assertion  of  tliis  form  of 
self-will  again  the  English  nation  took  resolute 
ground.  They  had  striven  for  a  law  which  was 
above  popes  and  kings,  to  wliich  these  must  conform 
on  pain  of  suppression.  They  strove  for  it  now 
against  mob  law,  against  popular  will  openly  avow- 
ing its  own  omnipotence,  and  making  the  tjTant's 
claim  to  do  what  was  right  in  its  own  eyes.  And 
so  through  our  whole  histor}*  the  same  thread  has 
run.  The  nation,  often  confusedly  and  with  stam- 
mering accents,  but  still  on  the  whole  consistently, 
has  borne  the  same  witness  as  the  Church,  that  as 
God  is  living  and  reigning  there  must  be  a  law,  the 
expression  of  his  will,  at  the  foundation  of  all 
human  society,  which  priests,  kings,  rulers,  people, 
must  discover,  acknowledge,  obey. 

The  old  question  is  coming  up  again  for  decision 
all  over  Europe.  "With  us  it  is  narrowed  to  a  single 
and  simple  issue.  There  are  several  ways  of  put- 
ting it  amongst  us,  but  the  result  seems  to  be  much 


318  LIFE    OF    ALFRED    THE    GREAT. 

the  same.  Whether  by  those  who  offer  us  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  God  "  a  collective  humanity  into  which 
we  are  all  to  be  absorbed,"  or  by  those  who  teach  that 
the  people  is  "  the  collective  interpreter  of  the  will 
of  God,"  the  old  faith  is  openly  set  aside,  and  we 
are  told  that  infallibility  is  at  last  found  for  men, 
and  resides  in  the  majority.  Such  doctrines  natu- 
rally outrage  the  historical  claimant  of  infallibility 
on  earth.  Looking  out  at  the  universal  ferment  of 
Christendom,  Pius  IX.  (in  his  Encyclical  Letter  of 
Dec.  8, 1864)  denounces  those  "  who  dare  to  publish 
that  the  will  of  the  people,  manifested  by  what  they 
call  public  opinion,  of  by  other  means,  constitutes 
the  supreme  law,  inde))endent  of  all  Divine  or 
human  law,  and  that,  in  political  order,  events 
which  have  been  accomplished,  by  that  very  reason 
that  they  are  accomplished,  have  the  force  of  right." 
The  alternative  which  the  Pope  would  propose  is 
one  which  we  in  England  need  not  discuss  ;  but  we 
are  bound,  at  our  peril,  and  shall  be  driven  in  our 
time,  to  consider  whether  we  are  prepared  to  ac- 
knowledge collective  humanity,  or  public  opinion, 
or  any  other  abstraction,  as  the  supreme  judge  and 
king  of  our  nation,  and  of  all  nations.  We  may 
despise  the  present  advocates  of  social  democracy, 
and  a  "  confederate  republic  of  Europe,"  and  make 
merry  over  their  sayings  and  doings  at  their  conven- 
tions in  Switzerland  and  elsewhere,  but  there  is  no 
man  who  knows  what  is  really  going  on  in  England 
but  will  admit  that  there  will  have  to  be  a  serious 
reckoning  with  them  at  no  very  distant  day. 

Christians,  then,  may  acknowledge  at  once  that, 
as  a  rule,  and  in  the  long  run,  the  decision  of  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.      319 

people  of  a  country,  fairly  taken,  is  likely  to  be 
right,  aud  that  the  will  of  the  people  is  likely  to 
be  more  just  aud  patient  than  that  of  any  person  or 
class.  No  one  can  honestly  look  at  the  history  of 
our  race  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  to  go  no 
farther  back,  and  not  gladly  admit  the  weight  of 
evidence  in  favor  of  this  view.  There  is  no  great 
question  of  principle  which  has  arisen  in  politics 
here,  in  which  the  great  mass  of  the  nation  has  not 
been  from  the  first  on  that  which  has  been  at  last 
acknowledged  as  the  right  side.  In  America,  to 
take  the  one  great  example,  the  attitude  of  the 
Northern  people  from  first  to  last,  in  the  great  civil 
war,  will  make  proud  the  hearts  of  English-speak- 
ing men  as  long  as  their  language  lasts. 

The  real  public  opinion  of  a  nation,  expressing 
its  deepest  con^^ctious  (as  distinguished  from  what 
is  ordinarily  called  public  opinion,  the  first  cry  of 
professional  politicians  and  journalists,  which  usual- 
ly goes  wrong),  is  undoubtedly  entitled  to  very  great 
respect.  But,  after  making  all  fair  allowances,  no 
honest  man,  however  warm  a  democrat  he  may  be, 
can  shut  his  eyes  to  the  facts  which  stare  him  in 
the  face  at  home,  in  our  colonies,  in  the  United 
States,  and  refuse  to  acknowledge  that  the  will  of 
the  majority  in  a  nation,  ascertained  by  the  best 
processes  yet  known  to  us,  is  not  always  or  alto- 
gether just,  or  consistent,  or  stable  ;  that  the  de- 
liberate decisions  of  the  people  are  not  unfrequently 
tainted  by  ignorance,  or  passion,  or  prejudice. 

Are  we,  then,  to  rest  contented  with  this  ultimate 
regal  power,  to  resign  ourselves  to  the  inevitable, 
aud  admit  that  for  us,  here  at  last  in  this  nine- 


320  LIFE   OF   ALFRED   THE   GREAT. 

teenth  century,  there  is  nothing  higher  or  better 
to  look  for;  and  if  we  are  to  have  a  king  at  all, 
it  must  he  king  people  or  king  mob,  according  to 
tlie  mood  in  which  our  section  of  collective  hu- 
manity happens  to  be  ?  Surely  we  are  not  pre- 
pared for  this  any  more  tlian  the  Pope  is.  ^lany 
of  us  feel  that  Tudors,  and  Stuarts,  and  Oliver 
Cromwell,  and  cliques  of  Whig  or  Tory  aristocrats, 
may  have  been  bad  enough ;  but  that  any  tyranny 
under  which  England  has  groaned  in  the  past  has 
been  light  by  the  side  of  what  we  may  come  to,  if 
we  are  to  carry  out  the  new  political  gospel  to  its 
logical  conclusion,  and  surrender  ourselves  to  gov- 
ernment by  the  counting  of  heads,  pure  and  simple. 
But  if  we  will  not  do  tliis  is  there  any  alternative, 
since  we  repudiate  personal  government,  but  to  fall 
back  on  the  old  Hebrew  and  Christian  faith,  that 
the  nations  are  ruled  by  a  living,  present,  invisible 
King,  IV'hose  will  is  perfectly  righteous  and  loving, 
the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever?-  It  is  be- 
side the  question  to  urge  that  such  a  faith  throws 
us  back  on  an  invisible  power,  and  that  we  must 
liave  visible  rulers.  Of  course  we  must  have  visible 
rulers,  even  after  the  advent  of  the  "confederate 
social  republic  of  Europe."  When  the  whole  people 
is  king  it  must  have  viceroys  like  other  monarchs. 
But  is  public  opinion  visible  ?  Can  we  see  "  col- 
lective humanity  ? "  Is  it  easier  for  princes  or 
statesmen  —  for  any  man  or  men  upon  whose  shoul- 
ders the  government  rests  —  to  ascertain  the  will  of 
the  people  than  the  will  of  God  !  Another  consid- 
eration meets  us  at  once,  and  that  is,  tliatthis  belief 
is  assumed  in  our  present  practice.     Not  to  insist 


THE   END   OF  THE   WHOLE   MATTER.  321 

upon  the  daily  usage  in  all  Christian  places  of  wor- 
ship and  families  throughout  the  land,  the  Par- 
liament of  the  country  opens  its  daily  sittings  with 
the  most  direct  confession  of  this  faith  which  words 
can  express,  and  prays,  —  addressing  God,  and  not 
public  opinion,  or  collective  humanity,  —  "Thy  king- 
dom come.  Thy  will  be  done."  Surely  it  were  bet- 
ter to  get  rid  of  this  solemn  usage  as  a  piece  of  cant, 
which  must  demoralize  the  representatives  of  the 
nation,  if  we  mean  nothing  particular  by  it,  and 
either  recast  our  form  of  prayer,  substituting  "  the 
people,"  or  what  else  we  please,  for  "God,"  or  let 
the  whole  business  alone,  as  one  which  is  past  man's 
understanding.  If  we  really  believe  that  a  nation 
has  no  means  of  finding  out  God's  will,  it  is  hypo- 
critical and  cowardly  to  go  on  praying  that  it  may 
be  done.  That  will  may  be  unjust,  unloving,  va- 
riable, for  anything  we  know ;  and  as  honest  men 
and  citizens  we  cannot  wish,  or  ask,  that  our  coun- 
try may  be  ruled  by  it. 

But  it  will  be  said,  assuming  all  that  is  asked, 
what  practical  difference  can  it  possibly  make  in  the 
government  of  nations  ?  Admit  as  pointedly  as 
you  can,  by  profession  and  by  worship,  and  honestly 
believe,  that  a  Divine  will  is  ruling  in  the  world, 
and  in  each  nation,  what  will  it  effect  ?  "Will  it 
alter  the  course  of  events  one  iota,  or  the  acts  of 
any  government  or  governor  ?  Would  not  a  Neapol- 
itan Bourbon  be  just  as  ready  to  make  it  his  watch- 
word as  an  English  Alfred  ?  Might  not  a  committee 
of  public  safety  placard  the  scaffold  with  a  declara- 
tion of  this  faith  ?     It  is  a  contention  for  a  shadow. 

Is  it  so  ?  Does  not  every  man  recognize  in  his 
14*  u 


322        LIFE  OF  ALFRED  THE  GREAT. 

own  life,  and  in  liis  observation  of  the  world  around 
him,  the  enormous  and  radical  difference  between 
the  two  principles  of  action  and  the  results  which 
they  bring  about  ?  What  man  do  we  reckon  worthy 
of  honor,  and  delight  to  obey  and  follow,  —  him  who 
asks,  when  he  has  to  act,  what  will  A,  B,  and  C  say 
to  this  ?  or  him  who  asks,  is  this  right,  true,  just,  in 
harmony  with  the  will  of  God  ?  Don't  we  despise 
ourselves  when  we  give  waiy  to  the  former  tendency, 
or,  in  other  words,  when  we  admit  the  sovereignty 
of  public  opinion  ?  Don't  we  feel  that  we  are  in 
the  right  and  manly  path  when  we  follow  the  latter  ? 
And  if  this  be  true  of  private  men,  it  must  hold  in 
the  case  of  those  who  are  in  authority. 

Those  rulers,  whatever  name  they  may  go  by, 
who  turn  to  what  constituents,  leagues,  the  press  are 
saying  or  doing,  to  guide  them  as  to  the  course  they 
are  to  follow,  in  the  faith  that  the  will  of  the  ma- 
jority is  the  ultimate  and  only  possible  arbiter,  wiU 
never  deliver  or  strengthen  a  nation  however  skilful 
they  may  be  in  occupying  its  best  places. 

All  the  signs  of  our  time  tell  us  that  the  day  of 
earthly  kings  has  gone  by,  and  the  advent  to  power 
of  the  great  body  of  the  people,  those  who  live  by 
manual  labor,  is  at  hand.  Already  a  considerable 
percentage  of  them  are  as  intelligent  and  provident 
as  the  classes  above  them,  and  as  capable  of  con- 
ducting affairs,  and  administering  large  interests  suc- 
cessfully. In  England,  the  co-operative  movement 
and  the  organization  of  the  trade  societies  should 
be  enough  to  prove  this,  to  any  one  who  has  eyes, 
and  is  open  to  conviction.  In  another  generation 
that  number  will  have  increased  tenfold,  and  the 


THE  END  OF  THE  WHOLE  MATTER.     323 

sovereignty  of  the  country  will  virtually  pass  into 
their  hands.  Upon  their  patriotism  and  good  sense 
the  fortunes  of  the  kingdom,  of  which  Alfred  laid 
the  deep  foundations  a  thousand  years  ago,  will 
depend  as  directly  and  absolutely  as  they  have  ever 
depended  on  the  will  of  earthly  king  or  statesman. 
It  is  vain  to  blink  the  fact  that  democracy  is  upon 
us, that  "new  order  of  society  which  is  to  be  found- 
ed by  labor  for  labor,"  and  the  only  thing  for  wise 
men  to  do  is  to  look  it  in  the  face,  and  see  how  the 
short  interv'ening  years  may  be  used  to  the  best 
advantage.  Happily  for  us,  the  task  has  been 
already  begun  in  earnest.  Our  soundest  and  wisest 
political  thinkers  are  all  engaged  upon  the  great  and 
inevitable  change,  whether  they  dread,  or  exult  in, 
the  prospect.  Thus  far,  too,  they  all  agree,  that  the 
great  danger  of  the  future  lies  in  that  very  readiness 
of  the  people  to  act  in  great  masses,  and  to  get  rid 
of  personal  and  individual  responsibility,  which  is 
the  characteristic  of  the  organizations  by  which 
they  have  gained,  and  secured,  their  present  position. 
Nor  is  there  any  difference  as  to  how  this  danger  is 
to  be  met.  Our  first  aim  must  be  to  develop  to  the 
utmost  the  sense  of  personal  and  individual  respon- 
sibility. 

But  how  is  this  to  be  done  ?  To  whom  are  men 
wielding  great  powers  to  be  taught  that  they  are 
responsible  ?  If  they  can  learn  that  there  is  still  a 
King  ruling  in  England  through  them,  whom  if  they 
will  fear  they  need  fear  no  other  power  in  earth  or 
heaven,  whom  if  they  can  love  and  trust  they  will 
want  no  other  guide  or  helper,  all  will  be  well,  and 
we  may  look  for  a  reign  of  justice  in  England  such 


324  LIFE   OF    ALFRED   THE   (^REAT. 

as  she  has  never  seen  yet,  whatever  form  our 
governmeDt  may  taka  But,  iu  any  case,  those 
who  hold  the  old  faith  will  still  be  sure  that  the 
order  of  God's  kingdom  will  not  change.  If  the 
kings  of  the  earth  are  passing  away,  because  they 
have  never  acknowledged  the  order  which  was 
established  for  them,  the  conditions  on  which  they 
were  set  in  high  places,  those  who  succeed  them 
will  have  to  come  under  the  same  order,  and  the 
same  conditions.  When  the  great  body  of  those 
who  have  done  the  hard  work  of  the  world,  and  got 
little  enough  of  its  wages  hitherto  —  the  real  stuff 
of  which  every  nation  is  composed  —  have  entered 
on  their  inheritance,  they  may  sweep  away  many 
things,  and  make  short  work  with  thrones  and  kings. 
But  there  is  one  throne  which  they  cannot  pull 
down,  —  the  throne  of  righteousness,  which  is  over 
all  the  nations ;  and  one  King  whose  rule  they  can- 
not throw  off,  —  the  Son  of  God,  and  Son  of  Man, 
who  will  judge  them  as  he  has  judged  all  kings 
and  all  governments  before  them. 


THE  END. 


nJi^-^^E"'*  REGlOM,  ,  ,D 


A     000  181  000 


